


Justice of a Fool and Fool of Justice

by Tartirta264



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort, Female Akechi Goro, Friendship, Gen, Tsundere Akechi Goro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 43,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27823930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tartirta264/pseuds/Tartirta264
Summary: Things are quite different than we originally thought. In this story, Ren Amamiya, leader of the Phantom Thieves does not attend to the Hawaii school trip due to the wish of attending an extracurricular course he had applied to a few months before.How big is his surprise when he finds no other than the Detective Princess, Goro Akechi at the reception of the hotel he is staying at. Being denied a room of her own at the hotel, the detective has no other choice but to share Ren's room, although he really had no problem with doing so.However, Akechi would've never expected to open her heart towards him like she ended up doing during her stay.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 30
Kudos: 44
Collections: Marigolds Discord Recs





	1. The True Encounter

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Unfiltered](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12227604) by [Aiyumi (aiyumibr)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aiyumibr/pseuds/Aiyumi). 



> Hi! I'm Tartita uwu This is the first time I publish a fanfiction in any platform, although I've been reading in AO3 for quite a while now. Though, this isn't an original work of mine; the original author is Aiyumi and the original work is called Unfiltered. (BE SURE TO CHECK THEIR ORIGINAL WORK! IT'S AMAZING!) What I wanted to do is reverse the roles of that story and maybe add some new stuff, but that's pretty much it (Goro Akechi as a Female and Ren Amamiya as a Male).
> 
> I did this because I saw it as a chance to give the people a good Female Goro story, since at least in this platform there aren't any stories that go deep into that side character. I hope you all enjoy ^^

Friday, 9th of September

Who could tell that things would turn out to be this... different. Ren Amamiya should actually be in the beach with his friends, having lots of shrimp, maybe rolling around for a swim at the sea and admire the beauty of chicks in swimsuits. Instead of going to Hawaii with his group of friends, he found himself attending to an enterpreneurship-related course he had applied to two months ago. During that time period, nobody ever informed him about the school trip to Hawaii, and he had already applied to the course by the time his friends told him about it, so he just had to go through with it. It wasn't all that bad though; he had really been looking forward for this course since it would grant him experience for the job he had in mind for the future. But by doing so, he missed the chance to go on a trip with his friends, which proved to be quite a bummer for him.

The course would take place from the 9th of September to the 12th, which was the same day his friends would be back, so he would be reunited with them on the 13th at school. Needless to say he was granted permission by the school to take Friday, Saturday and Monday and since the school trip was taking place, he shouldn't need to worry about catching up with classes. 

After a few morning struggles to get up on his feet, some hours of listening to the in charges of the course and a little lunch meal, the first day was over. The day had actually gone smoothly for Ren, since he had gained quite some experience that will work wonders for his future, but also gained some interesting skills that he could totally use in the Metaverse. 

Feeling quite proud of himself, he made his way back to the hotel, pushing the hotel entrance door open to make himself into the reception lounge. Once he took a look, he noticed someone talking to the receptionist... it was the last person he had expected to run into that day.

"Do you happen to have a reservation Akechi-san?" The female receptionist spoke with a polite gentle voice.

The high school detective girl seemed to be a bit nervous, as she pushed some of her hair behind her ear. "I'm afraid I didn't make any reservation. My trip was way too sudden, so I didn't have enough time to make one before coming here. Isn't there any chance for me to get a room?"

The receptionist sighed a little. "I'm sincerely sorry Akechi-san, but all the rooms are packed right now. If you didn't make a reservation beforehand, then I'm afraid I can't give you a room for you to stay in."

"Oh... I-I see..." Akechi rubbed her right arm with her left hand, seemingly troubled. Ren could tell that she was a little lost in her thought for a moment, as if she was considering what her options were at that moment.

"Well, there is a possibility of you staying in a room, if someone is willing to share their's with you." Said the receptionist, waking a little spark of hope in Akechi, who rose her sight almost instantly "Although, I don't expect that to happen. With your current situation and all, I don't know if someone would be willing to do so..."

Truth be told, Ren knew too little about the "detective princess". The most notable thing, is that she always wore that annoying TV celebrity mask, which was obviously forced and faked to the very root. This façade the highs chool detective girl wore almost everytime made his opinion of her not so nice the first times they interacted. Yet, when Ren saw her in this state, a bit sad and in need of help, he recalled the day she appeared in Leblanc, when he was finally able to see a glimpse of the person behind that poor fabricated celebrity mask. He heard the young girl disclosing pieces of her past, how she was pushed around from foster home to foster home, having no one to support her and be there for her. That loneliness... It honestly touched him closely, since he felt the same during his first days in Tokyo before meeting his friends. After that talk, the raven-haired boy became curious to get to know the person behind that plastic and automatic attitude, but they never really encountered each other since that day. But loo behold, she was here now and it was the perfect chance!

After the Phantom Thieves got into the job of taking down Medjed and succeded in that matter, Akechi's popularity had started to decrease massively and the public even became rather hostile towards her. Ren couldn't help but feel a little bad at Akechi's situation, so he chose to do something for her this once, and show her some kindness. If the receptionist was just mocking the poor girl or not, that was up for other people to guess, but the raven-haired boy was willing to take this chance and become a little more fond of the detective girl.

"If the lady is okay with it, then I don't mind sharing my room with her." spoke the raven who was just two meters away, with his hands in his pockets.

"H-Huh?!" Ren had to repress a chuckle from seeing Akechi startle like that. She quickly turned around, as her eyes started to widen comically, with an expression that wasn't characteristic of her, but still made her look a bit cute to Ren's eyes. "A-Amamiya-san...?? I wasn't expecting to see you here at all! How are you doing? It's been quite a while."

  
He offered the brunette a little smile. "Oh, I'm great thank you for asking, Akechi-san. So, you need a room right? How long will you be staying?" 

Akechi cleared her throat a little and regained her composure, crossing her arms on her chest, still visibly disturbed by the sudden offer. "Well, I won't be here for long. If there aren't any inconveniences along the way, I will be staying until Sunday at most."

"Well, I will be staying until Monday, but if you need to leave before, you can do so. If the hotel staff has no problem with it, then I'll be more than happy to share my room reservation with you." Ren then threw a glance at the receptionist. "Is it okay?"

A deep sigh escaped the receptionist lips as she shut her eyes out, tiredly. "Well, according to the rules, it is forbidden to have strangers share a room." She then opened her eyes back up and moved them from Ren to Akechi. "But then again, you both seem to be... quite well acquainted with each other." To that comment, Akechi couldn't help but tense up a little. The receptionist didn't finish there though "Most of our rooms have more than one bed, since people tend to come in medium and large groups. Now give me a second..." She almost mumbled that last phrase as she turned her sight towards the monitor to her left and started typing on the keyboard. After a few instants, she nodded a little. "Indeed. Your room is actually provided with two beds, Amamiya-san! If you so wish for it, I can change your single room to a double room reservation." She spoke as she turned her sight to the two teenagers.

Ren could see Akechi turning her head to look at the receptionist, then back at him and so on for a few instants, as a deep blush started appearing on her face. "Y-You can't possibly be serious about this, right..?!"

Ren only nodded firmly, and the receptionist only shrugged a bit, much to Akechi's dismay.

"B-But why?!" Akechi stared incredulously at Ren, keeping the blush in her face. "A-Are you seriously suggesting that we, two people of the OPPOSITE GENDER stay in the same room?! I mean that's just...!" She made big emphasis at the 'opposite gender' part of her argument. Ren couldn't help but chuckle at the detective's nervousness.

"Yeah, so? What's the issue?" Ren spoke quite nonchalantly, looking at the girl with a raised eyebrow. "Believe it or not, I've slept in the company of some of my female friends without any problems. I can assure you that I will not do anything to make you uncomfortable, that invades your privacy or make you uncomfortable. You know I'm a gentleman."

Her eyes widened once more, as she shook her head rapidly along with her hands. "Oh please Amamiya-san, I'm perfectly aware you wouldn't do anything like that to me! It's just...!" 

"Then don't beat around the bush too much, Akechi-san. I'm sure it'll be okay" He smiled a little at her. The girl grumbled a little; Ren had interrupted her both times she objected, but she didn't seem to have much of a choice on this. With that said, Ren turned his eyes to the receptionist with a little nod. "Please, go on with the reservation change." 

**\------------------**

Akechi couldn't help but stare dumbfounded, with her jaw half open, at the receptionist who had no problem in changing Amamiya's reservation. Once the raven and herself paid for each's part of the reservation, both of them received a copy of the room key to then excuse themselves to said room.

The hotel wasn't exactly too big, but it couldn't be considered small either. In the middle of the hotel establishment, there was a little green space with some trees and a fountain in the middle of a cross path; it seemed to be quite a nice spot to read or just relax. The room itself was quite aesthetic and pleasant to the view, even if it wasn't something extravagant or with a lot of personality, though Akechi wasn't really expecting anything too special. As soon as they opened the door, they could see that there was a wardrobe to the left and to the right there was a room that lead to a bathroom, which had a bathtub, a shower and even a hair dryer! (much to Akechi's relief.) A few steps forward from the entrance, the teenagers saw they indeed had two beds, one that was placed closer to a large window where both could see the sun setting and the other was placed a meter and a half away from the other, closer to the wall that was perpendicular to where the bathroom door was located. For the finishing touch, there was a night table in the middle space between the two beds and a large desk infront of the beds, on which there was a middle-sized TV. At least they would be able to watch some movies or something during their stay.

Once the raven and the brunette finished settling their stuff down, each of them took a sit at a bed, being Ren the one to take the bed closer to the window. After she took a sit at her bed, Akechi couldn't help but stare warily at the boy in front of her with her arms crossed, with her right leg crossed over her left leg. Outside of the mindless admirers that she had as a public figure, no one ever considered welcoming her anywhere she went, especially after people took a peek at her documents and found out that she was not only an orphan but ALSO a bastard child. _I'm the whole combo of disgustingness, huh?_ thought the girl, with a lot of her Loki side on it. But even though Amamiya was aware of her situation, after her involuntary slip that made her disclose fragments of her past to him back at Leblanc, he still welcomed her into his room. Not only that, but he was also very aware of her position towards the Phantom Thieves and it was obvious she couldn't consider him one of her admirers. So, why? Why would he insist in sharing a room with her? She knew he was indeed uncapable of doing anything to her but... Doubt is one of the greatest enemies of reason. Still, there must be an ulterior motive, he must want something from her. But what could it be? What, what, what, _WHAT???_

"Why are you doing this, Amamiya-san?" She asked, quite nonchalantly for how she normally acted.

"You mean why I'm sharing my room with you? Well, I'm doing it because I heard the receptionist say you couldn't get a room, and I just couldn't leave you without a place to sleep." Spoke the raven while scratching the back of his head a little.

"... Is that all? Really?" 

"What? Were you expecting something else?"

"W-Well no, it's just..." Akechi then realized she had lost her composure quite a bunch, so she sighed in order to relax and gain it back. It was incredible; she had been trained perfectly on how to interact with other people, she knew perfectly which words to use to answer to her fans questions or interviews, and yet this boy here managed to throw all of her efforts to the trash. Words just came out, without her being able to control herself... It was so frustrating. Ren always acted with a behavior that didn't follow any logic or patterns, which made it hard for her to understand him, and she hated being unable to understand something or someone in this case. "I just think you are being too nice with me, Amamiya-san."

The raven opened his eyes widely with a big grin on his lips and nodded slowly. "Ohhhh, I see. You are saying that you don't see me as a nice kind guy. Oh detective princess, you wound me with your words honestly." He gave a really long and dramatic sigh.

Akechi couldn't help but raise her voice a little; even though she had the title, when he called her that in a teasing way, it really bothered her. She also followed her words with a shake of her head "Do not call me that! And besides, that isn't what I meant! I was just saying that your gesture isn't necessary and that I-"

Much to Akechi's embarrassment, Ren started laughing unexpectedly while waving his hand gently from side to side "I'm just teasing you. You're being too serious about it, Akechi-san. Take it easy, will you? Stress is the enemy of beauty, after all."

And there was Ren Amamiya, acting in a totally unexpected way. She thought that the fact she couldn't comprehend his behavior would eventually end up giving her a headache. Was he just making fun of him like the bullies at the orphanages and schools he had been at? Was he trying to make her lower her guard? Was he just being stupid? Just what was he attempting to do?

"But I would be lying if I said there wasn't another reason why I allowed this, because there actually is." When the words came out of his mouth, Akechi's shoulders tensed up intensely. She was correct, this guy did have another reason to allow her in...

Akechi couldn't help but tap her left index finger on her right bicep out of nervousness. The brunette had been following the Phantom Thieves around the Metaverse from a safe distant since she noticed them inside Madarame's Palace, and even though she couldn't catch too many details, she had high suspicious that Ren was one of them. This was mostly thanks to the peculiar circle of friends he had, which was curiously composed by people that had some sort of connection to the Phantom Thieves previous targets. And then a thought came to her mind; what if he was suspecting her as well? What if Ren Amamiya was there because he was following her?! It all started falling to place!

"I wanted to talk with you, Akechi-san" he said.

...What? Was that it? Even though his request seemed harmless, Akechi was already thinking of various escaping ways of this situation. Was he trying to corner her? 

"...Huh? Talk to me...? About what?" She asked while raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I don't know princess. Weren't you the one who said you enjoyed talking to me?" asked the raven with a little smile on his face

"U-Uhm... Yes, I did..." Akechi admitted with a little nod. It was true; she had said that during their first interaction back at the TV station. Indeed, every talk with Amamiya was an interesting experience, even though she ended up being a mess once they were done with their interaction.

"Well, we barely run into each other since we met back at the TV station and the times we do, we don't have the time to talk too much. And after we had that talk back at Leblanc, I've been wondering when I would get the chance to have another conversation with you. Imagine my surprise when I saw you there, standing at the reception of the hotel I'm staying at! I knew I couldn't let this chance slip away, so now that we are here, I think we should use this time to talk, don't you think so princess?"

Akechi didn't quite buy the raven's words. She knew that Amamiya was a nice guy, but every person had a limit and right now, thanks to Amamiya's intromission, she was stuck with him. During the course of the last three months, during the little times they found each other, Akechi had been trying to make Ren Amamiya take a miss step and admit that he was indeed part of the Phantom Thieves, but as Amamiya had pointed out, they would be around each other more than they're used to. Even if she meant to make him confess about being a Phantom Thief, she wasn't going to pressure him all the while; that would be going too far.

"Here, have this as a peace offer okay? Don't know if you'll like it, but I have one every once in a while and it helps to cheer me up." When she realized it, the raven was searching around inside his bag and pulled out something. After finding what he was looking for, he got up and walked closer to her, placing the object next to her, before going back to his bed and laying on it. The object was a chocolate bar.

She hesitantly picked the bar, staring at it for a few seconds before moving her sight towards Amamiya. After thinking about it for a few instants, her shoulders relaxed a little as a sigh escaped her lips. "Thank you, Amamiya-san." She teared the chocolate's envelope, and took a bite on the chocolate... It was really good, and a little smile formed on her lips as she munched on the chocolate.

"Alright Akechi-san, what brings you to these parts? Must be something important if you took the work of coming here." said the raven with a spark of gentleness in his eyes.

"I just came over for a case. Nothing too big really, but I didn't want procrastinate on it too much, so I came around as soon as I could. With enough luck, I'll be done by Sunday. But enough about me, what brings you around here Amamiya-san?" The brunette took another bite on her chocolate once she was finished speaking.

"Oh, I just had to attend to a course that's taking place here. I had applied a few months ago, and I was really looking forward to it. Today was actually the first day and I have to say that the experience was quite fruitful; gained quite some interesting knowledge." 

"Oh? But don't you have school though? I mean, my school gave me special permission to take care of my detective work during school hours as long as I deliver academic results that compensate my absence in class. Have you been granted a permission like that? Oh!" Then she realized, while her eyes and voice softened up as she spoke. "Then again, it could also be a school-related course. Is that the case?"

Ren waved one of his hands from side to side. "Oh no, it is not school-related, it's actually an extracurricular activity. There's actually a school trip taking place right now, but I had enrolled for this activity a few months back and I really didn't want to miss it. I had to ask my school for permission to skip the school trip, but there wasn't too much trouble in that matter."

Ren noticed Akechi gave him a soft and genuine smile of admiration "Honestly, you never cease to impress me Amamiya-san. You had applied to your course beforehand and even skipped your school trip so that you would be able to attend it? Your dedication is quite astonishing."

"Well, you see dear princess, there is a difference between choosing to study something because you are truly interested in the subject and being forced to do so in order to get a good grade at school. Wouldn't you think so too, Akechi-san?"

Akechi had to force herself to hide a frown. She had been indeed learning things by herself, but not because she was truly interested in learning about those topics. The only reason why she did so, was because learning these things would be useful knowledge to trigger a conversation that would make her look smart and draw some attention on her, since she would be viewed as a well-informed person. It was all just a strategy to make her popularity grow even more, though who knows? Maybe all the things she knew would be useful someday.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right on that Amamiya-san..." Regardless of her thoughts, she gave the raven an answer that would seem satisfactory. But once she answered, the conversation just died there, and all they did was just stare at each other for a few instants. As the boy started to sit up on the mattress of his bed, Akechi attempted to touch the Phantom Thieves topic. "Oh, have you seen the rankings of the Phantom Thieves recently?" She let out a little chuckle. "Well what am I saying? Of course you ha-"

"Huh? Rankings?" The raven cut Akechi off while looking at her with a puzzled look in his eyes. "What are you talking about, Akechi-san?"

...What? He couldn't be serious. "Wait, you're telling me you haven't seen them? Really?" This really make Akechi suspicious. Was Amamiya really not aware of the rankings of the website? If he was part of the Phantom Thieves, he should be keeping up with the rankings of the website, shouldn't he?

"Sorry to disappoint you detective princess, but I haven't been able to check on the website lately. During the past week, I had been busy planning the trip here, preparing my things for the course and all that." The raven chuckled a little at how Akechi looked at him, seemingly unbelieving of what he was saying.

"Well, there is a ranking of who people wish for the Phantom Thieves to target next. It's been quite a thing, and the public had been quite... ferocious if I might give my opinion." The brunette explained to Amamiya the current situation of the website. "Currently, Mr. Okumura is at the top of the ranking."

"... Excuse me for asking, but who's that?"

Okay, this was utterly weird. Was Amamiya playing dumb or what? Akechi held her chocolate in her left hand, while she crossed her arms on her chest as she raised one of her eyebrows in disbelief. "Oh you know, no one too important. Just Mr. Kunikazu Okumura, the owner of Okumura Foods chain, which has Big Bang Burger as one of their properties. No biggie really." 

"Oh ho, no need to be all sassy with me, princess. I just wasn't aware." He spoke while wearing a little grin on his lips. God that grin annoyed her so much "Well, what did this Okumura guy do to make the public want the Phantom Thieves to target him? If you could enlighten me of course, Detective Princess-chan~" 

Akechi tried to not glare daggers at the boy, she tried HER HARDEST... and succeded in the end. As for the reason, it was important for the Phantom Thieves to target Okumura. This was actually a crucial thing for the trap. But hey, can't say that to the boy she suspects is a Phantom Thief, can she? "According to the media, his company is growing too much in relatively short periods of time. There are also some shady rumors rooming around, such as slave labor and many of Okumura Foods' competitors conveniently... disappearing, which seem to benefit the rapid growth of the company."

The raven placed his chin bewteen his right index and thumb fingers. "Conveniently disappearing, you say? Care to elaborate a little more on that Akechi-san?"

She didn't want to. It was obvious she was trying to not give him too much detail about the situation. And yet, she didn't seem to have much of a choice. "Well, things like other fast food chains employees having psychotic breakdowns and causing massive scandals that cause other chains' images to get a lot of dirt on them. An example of this would be the latest incident at Wild Duck Burger, in which the employee went crazy and started attacking a costumer. There have also been influential people in fast food industry... dying of... mental shutdowns. And it seems that only Okumura Foods has been getting benefit out of their deaths, no matter from what angle you look at the situation."

Amamiya listened closely to every word Akechi spoke to him. Once she was done, he looked directly into her eyes. "So what you are saying is basically that the psychotic breakdown and mental shutdown incidents are all being orchestrated?"

Akechi nodded as rested her chin on her left palm, with her elbow on her leg and her gaze towards the floor. "Yes, that would be the most logical explanation if we look at the big picture. And that's when a thought came to my mind. The forced changes of heart that the Phantom Thieves cause are obviously planned, in a similar matter to these incidents. With that in mind, I can't avoid thinking that the changes of hearts and the mental shutdown incidents are more similar that we had originally thought..." She then turned her sight towards the raven, hoping to see a defensive reaction or something that would make him slip.

Amamiya had his eyes shut for a moment, before opening them to find the brunette's gaze. "So what you are saying is that you believe the Phantom Thieves are behind the mental shutdown incidents?"

  
"I didn't specifically say that the Phantom Thieves are behind those incidents. But this theory I structured makes sense, and I believe we shouldn't discard the possibility of the Thieves being at least involved in those incidents. If the Phantom Thieves turn up to be the one's responsible for these incidents however, then they're even more dangerous than we originally thought."

She did notice the raven conflicted expression show up once she was done with her explanation. He was calm, but yet she could see he was quite troubled about what she had told him. Amamiya started looking inside his bang for his phone and as soon as he found it, he started tapping on it.

"Talk about a stupid shit show. Sorry for the language, by the way." Said Amamiya moving his sight from the phone screen to Akechi. Once she waved it off, he went back to scrolling down. "I'm taking a look at the Phansite right now, and I honestly can't believe what I'm seeing right now. The comments of the site are an utter mess, and that's being gentle. People are all around, commenting whatever the hell they want, telling the Phantom Thieves they have to target someone before the public gets bored. It's like they're just trying to boss the Thieves around, as if this was some kind of spectacle. How can they be like that? Don't they care at all about the things that are involved in the matter? Dear Lord, this is disgusting..." 

"I'm sorry that it disappoints you Amamiya-san, but that's how the public acts. They switch sides whenever they see that something's more popular that what they're currently supporting. You never have any guarantee how long they will be on your side until they turn back on you. One day they are with you and the next day, they are kicking you and spitting right at your face. Take me as an example; since Phantom Thieves took down Medjed, the public has been acting hostile towards me not only on the internet, but also sometimes when I got to school or just walk around Shibuya. And if you watch close enough, you will see my name is in the ranking as well."

"I'm sorry to hear about that, Akechi-san. But just let them speak, don't let them get to you, okay? All they know is to boss around speaking whatever they want, so just ignore them." He flashed a little smile at the girl.

"Ah, I appreciate your kind words. Thank you very much." Said the brunette, returning the smile. Though, in her mind, the raven just disliked her like everyone else and was just being polite. She chuckled as she took a bite on her chocolate. "But to be honest, the fact of being targeted by the Phantom Thieves does sound interesting to me. If they do decide to come after me, then I would finally be able to find out the nature of their methods."

"Wait wait wait. You believe the Thieves may actually go after you?"

"... Well yeah, I do believe so." 

"But, why would they even do that?" He asked in quite desbelief.

"Well, it is pretty obvious Amamiya-san. I'm the most well-known public figure to oppose them so far. They might as well decide to erase any opposition, just as Okumura has been doing with the mental shutdowns incidents that benefit the growth of his company. If the mental shutdowns incident are indeed related to the change of hearts, and the Phantom Thieves do turn out to be the ones behind them, the most logical thought is to believe that they would follow the same course of action."

Even if Amamiya wasn't the easy one to read, Akechi could notice his frown of frustration. It was obvious to her that he was thinking something like "Why would **we** even do something like that?! Are you crazy?!" Still, the raven didn't loose his composure one single bit, which only made Akechi even more impressed about the boy. It was incredible how cold and composed he could really be, even if he was alone with the investigator of the Phantom Thieves by excellence.

After a few seconds of being lost in his thought, Amamiya allowed a heavy sight to escape his lips. His gaze seemed... Worried. _Aha!_ She caught him for good now! "You know princess, there is one thing that I can't question about you and that is your incredible deductive ability. To be honest, you are the smartest person I have ever met, even before tranferring to Tokyo. But... I honestly hope you are wrong about this one. In my eyes, the Phantom Thieves represent the spark of hope that society needs towards the path of reform, so that the world becomes a better place." A little smile appeared on his face "And honestly, I don't want anything to happen to you either, Akechi-san. So let's hope for the best okay?"... _What?_

A sudden warmth started growing in Akechi's chest. She couldn't believe what she just heard. _He's worried about my safety..?_ She couldn't really believe it. However, a little genuine smile formed on her lips. "That's very sweet of you Amamiya-san, but I think I'll do fairly okay by myself. Although, I agree with you in that we should hope for things to turn out for the best. I honestly dislike being wrong about my deductions, but if the Phantom Thieves turn out to be just, then at least I would gain a bit of hope. If they are indeed people who wish to reform society for the better, then maybe everything's not lost in this harsh and messed-up world we live in..."

**\------------------**

Ren was a little taken a back by Akechi's crude words. "Harsh and messed-up world"? How could she say something like that? It was obvious that she had a really tough situation, but she had to have some nice things in her life, right?

"Huh? Why would you say that this world is hopeless? I mean yeah, there's a lot of hard stuff going on, but there are also a lot of good things in the world too."

Akechi clicked her tounge loudly at the raven's words, with her eyes growing a little dark. This only made Ren grow even more worried about whatever was happening to her.

"Akechi-san? You alright?"

As soon as he called for her name, the girl turned her gaze to a side, letting her bangs cover her garnet eyes. "It's nothing."

"Look, Akechi-san, I really want to know how you f-"

"I said. It's. Nothing. Amamiya. Stop asking." She spoke with a pretty cold and sharp voice, that managed to startle the raven quite a bit.

Akechi couldn't see him, but Ren's eyes were filled with worry. Why would she act this cold towards him? Did he make her feel uncomfortable with his words? Feeling that all he managed in the end was bother her, the only thing he could manage was to sigh and wear a little smile.

"I'm not sure what is that made you think of the world that way, but I don't want to push it. I just want you to know, Akechi, that if you need someone to speak to, I will be right here for you. No need to even ask, just say everything, alright?"

Akechi didn't move her gaze to look at him, yet she found herself opening her mouth a little as if she wanted to speak, but then she closed it shut. It wasn't on purpose, yet he touched a very sore spot and the level of trust she had with him wasn't enough to tell him about it. Even so, she nodded gently, granting him an answeer at the very least.

"Alright good. I'll excuse myself now and give you some time to chill. I'm in desperate need for a shower, y'know?" After chuckling a little, he got up from his bed, walking towards the bathroom. He went inside, and all Akechi could hear now was the sound of a filling bathtub.

**\------------------**

Now that Akechi was alone in the room, she started to get lost in her thoughts. The young girl didn't dislike the Phantom Thieves. In fact, she was quite sure that their actions were giving really good results. They just happened to be the perfect scapegoats to frame the mental shutdowns on. With this action, Shido would gain an extreme amount of support from the public, giving him at least 95% guarantee to reach the top and finally become Prime Minister, and as consequence of that, she would be able to fulfill her revenge against the crappy asshole of a father she had. If these Phantom Thieves of Hearts had appeared a few years ago, before turning into a massive murderer, before she approached Shido to gain his trust, before that mysterious entity filled her mind with sweet words about being special and unique and gave her the power. If they had just existed before she started crawling this path of constant destruction and misery... She may at least have a chance of a better future, something brighter than what she currently had ahead.

But that didn't happen. She lived in the present, and in the present, she was still a monster of a person who took lives, destroyed families and brought people down just for the sake of her revenge against Shido. At first, she totally refused to kill other people for that man. She couldn't even stand the thought of taking another person's life and all the things that came with that action; the grief of the family... She knew what it was like have things ripped away from her, and she wasn't willing to bring that pain to other people. But the desire of revenge proved to be stronger than her empathy, and when she realized it she was already killing for Shido.

Akechi tried desperately to hide all the guilt that it caused her; every day and every night she would tell herself that her victims deserved to die, because they were just as bad as Shido. Disgusting, coldhearted and power-hungry assholes that only cared for their own safety and that wouldn't doubt to ruin other people if it meant getting a higher position in the society pyramid. And yet, she knew. She was perfectly aware that her actions were unforgivable. All she did with her actions, was take things away from others just like Shido did with her mother. In a very twisted way, it was very obvious she was his daughter. After all, she was just as much of a coldhearted beast as he was. And the worst thing is that she just gave excuses for being one.

The girl brought a hand to her face when she felt something wet run down her cheeks. _I'm... crying?_ Hot tears were pouring through her eyes, running down her cheeks, while gentle sobs were attempting to escape her mouth. Her hands started going around her face, wiping the tears quickly before the raven came back, while she attempted to hold her mouth shut to stop the sobbing. _There's nothing I can do now..._ she thought to herself, feeling the tears finally stopping and her sobs growing silent after a few seconds. For a moment, she could only stare at the chocolate that Ren had given to her. She thought about how it was so nice of him to have this gesture with her, even after allowing her to stay in his room. Actually, all he had done that day was behaving kind and sweet towards her. She took a few more bites on the choco bar, which was still great, to finish it up, and threw the envelopment to a trash can near the desk.

Once Amamiya was out of the bathroom, she quickly excused herself into it. While she was having a relaxing bath, her mind started spinning around on Ren and how, despite all his good gestures, she had behaved so wrongly at him. The brunette started to gently sink down into the bathtub, letting the water reach the level of her mouth. _I should apologize to him... I really should_. thought the brunette while closing her eyes and sinking down her face, allowing the hot water of the tub to wash away the trace of the tears she had cried just a few instants ago.

**\-----------------**

Once both were cleaned and relaxed, they made their way to the hotel restaurant to have some dinner. Akechi was really wishing to apologize for how she treated Amamiya, but she felt so... Ashamed. She avoided getting close to him, so that he could have his space and prepare mentally to apologize to him later. The table she was sitting at had seats for at least eight people including herself.

"Hey, Akechi-san?" The sound of Amamiya's voice snapped her back to the real world, as she moved her sight towards the boy. He was standing a few inches away from her, near her sit.

"Yes? What is it Amamiya-san?"

"Did I... Make you angry? Or uncomfortable?" She noticed a glimpse of worry in the Ren's eyes.

Akechi knew by the moment she saw the worry in Ren's eyes that she couldn't run away from it. She HAD to apologize, and she had to do it right there. With a shake her head, she denied Ren's words. "N-No! That's not the case at all! The thing is that... I-I..." Her eyes turned away from him. "I was actually planning to apologize to you. I behaved so cruelly to you back in the room and you were just trying to be nice. It was very sweet the way you were concerned about my safety and I just acted coldly towards your kindness. So... I'm deeply sorry about my attitude." Ren was about to speak up, but Akechi cut him off and continued speaking. "I wanted to come to you and apologize properly, but after how I acted towards you, I felt so ashamed and embarrassed that I thought I should just stop intruding in your way and be more of a burden than I'm to you already. You're already allowing me to stay in your room during this time period, so... Please, do not feel obligated to spend time with me."

  
The raven couldn't help but smile at the brunette. "Akechi-san, I'm not being obligated to do anything and you don't have to apologize for what happened back there, it's okay. I chose to share my room with you, and I'm honestly contented that we get that we can spend time together. You are not a burden to me at all; in fact, if anything, you're making the stay even more pleasant in my opinion. One of the downsides of coming here, was the fact that I wouldn't be able to see any of my friends, since they are several continents away from here. So when I saw you back at the reception, I was actually very happy to find a familiar face at this place and have someone I could talk to. I would really enjoy having your company at the dinner table, but if you so prefer to have dinner alone then I won't bother you."

Akechi moved her sight firmly to Amamiya, to then shake her head "No, that's not it... It's not that I 'prefer' having dinner on my own. It's just that I'm not that used to have company of other people. There are some occasions in which some people from work treat me dinner, but it's just so that we can discuss work matters. To be honest, it is really rare for me to hang out with someone my age, more so in a trip like this. But if you really don't mind having me as a companion, then please by all means take a sit. I guess the least I can do after how I treated you, is accompanying you to enjoy your dinner. You can choose any of the free seats; as you can see there are plenty for you to do so." A little chuckle followed her last phrase, while moving her gaze towards all the empty seats of her table.

"Why thank you for your kindness, detective." Ren smiled before taking the seat right next to Akechi. This actually managed to surprise the brunette. "I'm still sorry about what happened earlier. I shouldn't have pushed it like I did... The topic did seem to bother you quite a bunch and I sti-"

Before Amamiya could say anything else, Akechi raised a hand gently, cutting him off. "I already told you Amamiya-san, I'm the one in fault here. In fact, I was the one who started the whole problem by taking out the topic of the Phantom Thieves." She then lowered her hand, staring down at her food. "I'm... I honestly wish I could have the same positive outlook to the world as you do. But..." All the words she wanted to speak got drowned in her throat, but she had to say something. Ren only waited patiently for her to continue speaking. "I've been through a lot of things during my times in the institutions and the foster homes. Things that I honestly wish I could forget, because just remembering them brings me a lot of pain. It was very difficult for me to keep on with all those things that happened to me... Now, I don't know the extent of the hardships you had to go through, Amamiya-san, but I can totally tell that I hasn't been easy for you either."

"Huh? Hardships? What do you mean Akechi-san?" Ren was totally not in the same page as the brunette. What was she talking about?

"I... Uh..." Ren could notice a little shame in the girl's eyes, as she draw closer to whisper into his ear. "I know about your situation. I know you were transfered to Tokyo for your probation. I looked you up... I hope you are not angry at me for that."

"Ah... I see." Were the words Ren managed to speak when he heard Akechi mention his probation. He couldn't say he was surprised about the fact she looked him up; in fact, he would be surprised if she hadn't done that at all! It wasn't that hard to figure she would look him up, since she clearly had suspcions of him and his friends being the Phantom Thieves. And since she did suspect them, then it was only natural for her to investigate them, since she was a detective. 

"Although, assault? Seriously? What exactly did you do to get yourself in that kind of situation, Amamiya-san?" She asked while crossing her arms a little and placing her right leg over her left leg. 

"Wow, I know who you are princess, but I still didn't expect you to start digging up dirt on me. You aren't having second thoughts about staying in the same room as me, are you?" Ren only chuckled while resting his chin on the palm of his right hand. "Though, you are free to be the judge. Do you see me as the type of guy that goes around assaulting people?"

  
"No, not a single bit." A little smile formed on her lips, that turned into a gentle smirk. She gently moved her right foot from side to side, while slowly tapping her left index on her right bicep. "That's precisely the reason why I'm asking you about it. The way your case was handled is extremly odd if you ask me; unprecise would be a good adjective to define it. The report is too short and it doesn't provide a lot of information, not even the victim's name is on the report, which means the report has been hardly manipulated. So, I ask you again, what exactly happened?"

"Well, I don't mind telling you what happened that night. I'll tell you the truth, but it will be up to you to believe it or not, alright?"

"Do not hesitate to tell me everything." She nodded in encouragement, causing the raven boy to smile a little.

And so, Ren told Akechi the truth behind that night. How he had encountered a drunk man, forcing himself on a defenseless woman who was screaming for help. How he heeded her call, tried to help her and...

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?! THAT POOR EXCUSE OF A MAN FORCED THE WOMAN TO INCRIMINATE YOU?!" The yell actually managed to take Ren a little back; he had expected the girl to keep her composure and listen to his story with her classic analytical eyes, but instead all he could see in her eyes was a wild fire, fed by pure rage. It was kind of scary to see her like that, and luckly there weren't a lot of people at the dinner right in that moment to stare at them.

"Yeah... And it's not like she didn't, she actually did incriminate me. That's the truth, believe it or not."

"Oh please of course I believe you! There's no evidence that you can use to prove it, and I have no way to know if you exaggerated any of the story, but I've seen enough of this cases like this to believe your side of the story is actually the real one. Jesus, just hearing it makes me want to vomit..." Spoke the brunette with an evident frown of disgust, while the pace of the tapping agaisnt her bicep grew faster. "It's also a big fact that the victim must have been someone quite powerful if he was able to keep his name out of the police report. You don't happen to remember who he was right? Or at least how he looked?"

  
"I'm sorry Akechi-san, but I really can't remember them." He gently shook his head. "It was quite dark that night and the shock of getting arrested like caught up to me. I wish I could remember his face at least but..." The raven's eyes became a little sad. Akechi didn't realize, but she was reaching out for his hand, gently placing her palm on the top of Ren's hand. Even if this action was embarrassing, she wanted to show him some support. She had her gloves on, but she could still feel the gentle warmth of his hand against the leather.

  
"It's okay Amamiya-san... I know it must have been hard to take it all at in the expand of one single night. What happened after the arrest? Uh- I-I mean if you want to share it with me of course..."

Ren couldn't help but be surprised at the sudden touch of Akechi's hand; she was gently caressing his own, and he could feel the leather gently brushing his skin. "Sure... I don't mind telling you." He took in a deep breath, then sighed. "Well, saying it was hard would be an extreme understatement. Back in my hometown, I had an excellent reputation. I was a model student with fantastic grades, I was very invested in Math and Economy but that didn't stop me from being dedicated to a sport like Kendo. My parents always told me that they were proud of having me as a son and that I only brought happiness to the family. I had supportive friends, the teachers loved me, my life was practically perfect. But then I realized that no matter how hard I worked for everything I had, five minutes was a period of time big enough to make it all fall to pieces. When I least expected it, my friends were turning their backs on me telling me I was nothing more than a poor excuse of a person, the teachers would reject me from participating in school projects, the people around the town would throw me glances of disgust... I couldn't even go to the grocery store without getting spitted on my face by the owner of the store. I felt utterly miserable." He lowered his head a little, allowing his bangs to cover his eyes. Akechi could notice his shoulders were shaking a little as he continued. "My life was ruined... All because I wanted to do the right thing, because I put the future of another person before mine, because I stood up for someone who was in need for help. Luckly, my parents knew me better than anyone else, and they stood up by my side, defending me and recognizing that I would never commit the act they had accused me of. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been able to stand the fact that I had to come to Tokyo and do my probation there. I was barely lucky that Shujin accepted me because of my previous reputation. All of that made me feel so... scared. Scared of making more mistakes, of somehow getting screwed over another time and never be able to recover myself from it. That if I somehow gained a chance of a better future, it would just be swifted away in less than a minute." His shoulders stopped shaking little by little, and his gaze lifted a bit. Akechi could see the raven's lips curl up into a smile. "But I really can't complain much. Now I have a big bunch of friends who truly care for me, I keep a good academic life and my parents are constantly supporting me, even though they couldn't come with me since their lives are already established back home."

Akechi was staring right into Ren's eyes, completely astonished... She couldn't believe that after all the pain, this boy managed to still have a positive view on the same world who had stepped on him so harshly. A bit hesitantly, her grip on Ren's hand started tightening up a little. "Amamiya-san, you really are an incredible human being. It is so hard for me to believe that after being so mistreated by others, you still find the strength to fight back and look to the future with positivism. I could have never imagined all the things you had to endure because of that situation, or that you were an outcast to begin with..."

"Well, I guess that's the same for the both of us, miss detective princess. I could've never imagined all the hard stuff you had to go through, if you hadn't gone to Leblanc and disclosed about your past like you did back there."

The detective girl couldn't help but huff a little at the raven's words, as she pulled her hand back, to sit back at her arm crossed position. "Well I wasn't really intending to tell you about my situation. I honestly feared that you would despise me and treat me like a piece of trash when you learned about my situation. But then again, when I realized it, I was already telling you about it."

  
The raven chuckled a little, as he adjusted his glasses. "To be fair though, it seemed like you really needed to get that off your chest. You don't seem to be the kind of person that opens up easily to others, so it was nice to see you open up to me."

The detective girl allowed herself to laugh a little. "Ah, well I will give you the point on that. I don't trust other people that easily. And yet, there is something about you that makes me speak way more than I mean to or than I should. It's honestly weird."

The raven boy laughed along with the brunette and followed this with a gentle nod. "Well, it is quite a thing to know. The Charming Detective Princess of Justice, turns out to be an outcast just like me. Quite the deal if you asked me" The raven stared into Akechi's eyes. "And... I totally understand what it's like to be labeled by others and that situation is not easy to carry on your own. So I will tell you once more what I told you at the room; if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm right here. I promise to you that you won't be looked down at all, okay?"

"Yeah... Thank you, Ren. I really appreciate those words and your intentions." 

A hard silence filled the table... Why did the place grow so silent? They were just talking normally a few instants ago. This actually managed to make Akechi a little nerveous, but it was replaced with confusion when she saw Ren laughing a bit loudly.

"Wow, I never-" Ren tried to hold in his laughter, pressing a fist on his mouth. "I never expected you to call me by my first name out of sudden! Didn't know we had grown into such a personal level, princess."

Akechi sat there, staring at him... It took a couple of seconds for her to get what happened. And when she did, her face turned red like a cherry tomatoe. "H-H-Huh?! I-Im s-so sorry! I-I didn't, oh dear God this is so embarassing! I'm really really sorry I didn't mean to c-call you by your first name I got too carried away, Amamiya-san! I-It will never happen again!" She shook her hands rapidly along with her head, and Ren lost it again, bursting into laughter at the view of Akechi blushing so madly.

"No that's not what I mean! It's totally okay for me to call you Ren, most of my friends do so anyway. I just didn't expect you to call me like that literally out of nowhere, but it's okay!"

**\----------------**

What?? How could he allow her to just call him by his first name so naturally?! That wasn't normal at all!

  
"B-But... I'm not..." the words died in Akechi's mouth, who still had a hardcore blush on her face.

"My friend?" 

Akechi nodded at the raven finishing her phrase.

"Well, that might be true... But I don't see a reason why we couldn't be. Wouldn't it be nice?"

Akechi seemed to be taken aback by the sudden offer. She had literally no friends, since it seemed no one was willing to give her a chance to become their friend. Although she never really had actual friends, she had this strong belief that true friendship had to be special. Something that should come naturally, not forced. After a few seconds, she nodded a little, as the blush started to abandon her face.

"I-I mean that would be really nice... But d-do you really believe we can become actual friends? I mean, I believe true friendship is something that should comes naturally."

"Well, I think there is a huge possibility of it happening. Despite our different opinions on some matters, we get along quite well with each other and I honestly enjoy spending time with you. I believe we could actually become great friends in a not so far future."

Unfortunately, it wasn't really that simple. There was one fact that Ren was skipping, which was the Metaverse. If he found out all the things Akechi had done as the Black Mask, he would truly despise her and hate her with all his heart. And loosing a bond wasn't something Akechi was looking forward too...

"And by the expression you're wearing, it seems that you think the same as me..." Ren noticed how she had lowered her guard, making the perfect scenary to tease her a little bit. He made the most Joker-esque smirk he could, while looking at the detective's garnet eyes. "But if you want me to, I wouldn't mind becoming more than just your friend, Goro-chan~"

The sound of her first name escaping Ren's lips, the sight of that seducive smirk on his face when looked up at him... It was all just too much. Though it was kind of funny; to think a few months ago, she would just brush it off saying things like 'Charming as ever, Amamiya-san' or 'Well aren't you the sweet talker?'. Now though? She was just a big blushing mess, with no control over herself. "H-Hey! Don't say things like that with such a straight face! Have some dignity! And just because I said you first name by accident, that doesn't mean you should call me by my first name so casually!"

"Okay okay, my bad! You just look very cute when you are flusttered, and in other times you would just ignore me, so seeing you blushing like this is kind of priceless." Ren couldn't help but laugh as he finished his words, while the brunette huffed in frustration as she crossed her arms tightly and pouted.

"You are completly impossible you know that...?!" To those words, Ren merely shrugged as he winked at her, to which she only averted her eyes to a side, a little frustrated and annoyed . Afterwards, she started thinking about the offer. The idea of having Ren Amamiya as her friend actually made her very happy. After her mother commited suicide, no one would ever adress to her in order to ask her how she was doing or if she just needed a hug or a person to talk to. Instead, every interaction with other people was just out of interest or just to bully or mistreat her, as if she was nothing more than a bother for others. Her current situation wasn't any different; people gave her attention because of her status as a public figure, but she never hung around with anyone her age that was truly invested in getting to know her. But the thought of finally having someone to talk to, someone to have a smooth and nice conversation, someone to hang around with... To have a real friend. The mere thought made her heart a little warm. Could she give herself the luxury after all she has done though? Yet, a little smile formed on her lips. "Although, having you as a friend... It would actually make me happy too. I really look foward to it, R-Ren." 

Ren could only smile at the brunette, to which she returned the gesture, by making her little smile grow the same size as Ren's, while mantaining her nerveous blush. It was a weird view, yet he really liked it. Who would've know the 'Detective Princess' could behave so much like a tsundere? "Good, seems you catch up quite fast. Didn't expect less from the Detective Princess though! Alright, now let's enjoy our meal, shall we?"

"Oh yeah! W-We barely even touched our food since we sit here! Let us eat now." Both of them nodded and claspped their hands. After a gentle 'Itadakimasu', both of them started to dig into their fun. This simple moment was enough to make the detective's heart warm a little. Just a nice meal with a good friend... She could really get used to it.

**\------------------**

After enjoying their meals and some small and quick chatter, the two teenagers decide to walk back to their room. Akechi couldn't help but almost jump at her bed, rolling on it so that she could sit up propertly. Once the raven sitted at his own bed, he started scrolling around the TV channels, trying to find a movie or an interesting show to watch for the night. Until he felt the brunette yelp a little when he passed one of the channels, which caused him to turn his sight at the brunette. "Huh? What is it, Akechi-san?"

"Oh nothing I just... Thought I saw a cool movie playing, but it's really not that interesting!" She waved a hand gently, dismissing the situation.

Ren couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at how suspicious Akechi acted. She went back to the last two channels he just passed through, noticing how there was the "Spiderman 3" opening playing. When he noticed the brunette's eyes widen a bit at the movie, he chuckled gently. "Ohhhhhh, you like those western hero movies? A police detective that enjoys this kind of shows? Now that is something new."

  
Akechi's cheeks puffed up a gentle tone of pink as she glared at the raven. "Well yeah, I'm sorry if it's that surprising. I know that with the nature of my work, it may seem a little hard for me to enjoy this kind of things. But when I was younger, I used to be quite... invested in superheroes in general. Though, I always had a liking for Spiderman in particular, since me and my mother watched the movies together every once in a while."

  
"It is a pleasant surprise though. I didn't quite see it coming, but it's a really nice thing to know you like them. You don't have to get so defensive about it Akechi-san. What, you think I'm the kind of guy who would tell you girls liking superheroes is weird? If so, I think you should reconsider it detective, you know me quite better than that."

"... I may have thought so, but judging by your words, you don't really mind it. Which is indeed a relief..." Though Ren was correct in his assumption that her likings had grown different due to her life experiences, she still kept some good memories of this hero shows and movies she used to watch. That's why, when she saw the man in his red and blue suit swinging around in the intro of the movie, she couldn't help but get surprised and even... a bit excited.

"Alright, let's watch it. Never seen it before though, so you'll have to walk me through it a little." 

With a nod from the brunette, their attention went back to the movie. Her memory of this movie was a little foggy, but as soon as the intro was over, her memory of the movie became more clear. It was in English, but both of them were quite skilled and had no problems in following the dialogues that went along through the scenes. Ren was susprised by how incredibly well crafted the action scenes were, making it clear that there was a lot of dedication into this film. As soon as he had a doubt about a situation, she would turn to Akechi who would explain him the whole deal with the luxury of details so that the raven wouldn't get lost again. He could notice this gentle yet obvious spark of joy when she had to speak and her hands would follow all her words, though she would back up a little and avoid being too talkative about it. 

The truth was that this movie had... quite a personal value for Akechi. There was this moment, when Spiderman allowed himself to get corrupted by the symbiote suit, which gave him an inmesurable stregnth and raw power. But that came with the price of altering his personality, making him a lot more agressive towards others. He even blowed up a bomb on his best friends face, causing him a mayor injury on it. Even so, Peter Parker didn't flintch at all. Until the breaking point when he hit the love of his life, an act that was worthy of a monster. That's when he decides that he needs to get back in the right path, freeing himself from the influence of the black suit and go back to be the good hearted person everyone knew. But that didn't undo the fact that he treated others so cruelly and that he raised a hand agaisnt the person he loved the most in the whole world. The sins he had commited would still haunt him, and the people he loved could never forgive him for his actions. Or that was what the hero thought would happen. In a fight agaisnt two powerful enemies to save the love of his life, the hero find himself in the brink of death just to be saved by the friend he had hurt so much before. During the course of the battle, one of the enemies manages to badly injure the protagonist's friend, causing him to be desperate to stop this people. Once the battle was over, Spiderman knew that his friend wouldn't survive the injuries, but in his very last moments his friend makes peace with the progatonist, forgiving him for his deeds. Even after all the sins he had commited and all the people he had hurt, he still forgave him. 

Was it possible? Finding forgiveness for the deeds of the past. Allowing oneself to gain people's trust after being behaving like a beast that cared for nothing else that their own befenit. This question echoed through her head while she saw the movie credits in the TV screen. She didn't really think she could get something like forgiveness after everything she had done under Shido's order, but considering the possibility was something that made her doubt about herself and her goal from time to time. But her stubborness didn't allow her to think too much about it, reminding herself that she could never go back to who she was before walking this path of destruction. 

After the credits ended, the raven checked the time and stretched with a deep yawn. "Alright detective, that was quite a blast. Really liked the movie! But I think we should head to sleep now. It's getting quite late and both of us have a long day tomorrow."

The brunette rubbed her eyes a little, visibly tired. "Yes, I agree. Well then, I will go brush my teeth and go to bed. Once I'm done, feel free to use the bathroom as well." With that said, she excused herself of the room. After both of them were ready, brushed teeth and pijamas, they layed on each bed and gave each other a goodnight wave.

  
The hours passed... 9, 10, 11 PM. As time went buy, it became more difficult for Akechi to sleep propertly. Many things were roaming around her mind and even if she shut her eyes tightly or even moved around the bed in desperation, she still couldn't find a peaceful sleep. After huffing hardly, she turned around so that she could see Ren. His back was facing her. _Could he be awake? Well..._ "Hey... Ren. Are you awake?" Whispered the brunette with a little hesitation.

  
Surprisingly enough, the raven turned around while grunting loudly. Though, as soon as his eyes found Akechi's, his lips curled up into a little smile. "Yeah, I can't really sleep. I guess I'm quite stressed after today..." He spoke with enough volume for the brunette to understand it's safe for her to speak louder.

  
"Oh... Are you sure I didn't wake you up? If I did, I'm very sorry..."

"No really, you're good detective. And you don't seem to be able to sleep either." Ren giggled a little as Akechi nodded, confirming the raven's suspicions.

"Yeah... I guess we are in the same situation then. Maybe if we talk around a little, we will eventually fall asleep."

"Good idea. If that's the case, want to hear about the time I laughed so hard that the milk I was drinking started coming out of my nose?" Said the raven while moving a bit on his bed, as if he was getting a bit more comfortable.

  
"... I don't know why, but I don't expect this story to be pleasant." Akechi couldn't help but giggle a little at the thought of milk coming out of Amamiya's nose.

  
The two teenagers stayed awake, with Ren telling Akechi funny stories about things that happened back at his hometown. The talk went on for an hour or so, until both of them fell asleep in the sweet embrace of the calm moment.


	2. Want to be Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The following day of her stay, Akechi goes into the Metaverse and find herself quite out of game. Thanks to that, she gets injured and as she comes out of the Metaverse, she notices she is completly bad and with an intense headache. And so she goes to a hopistal and they give them a medicine for the pain.
> 
> What happens next is something that neither Ren or even Akechi thought would ever happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooookay, here is the second chapter. As you can notice, it didn't take me that much to write since I'm on vacation. Hopefully it will be the same with the others xD
> 
> Anyway hope you'll all enjoy and I wish you nice day/night! ^^

Saturday, 10th of September

The whole process of infiltration into the Metaverse was something Akechi had no problems with. She had a massive amount of experience that allowed her not only to create incredible strategies of infiltration, with a perfect distribution of healing and SP items, but also gain a lot of sick skills, like knowing how to reach the highest spots of a palace to hide in the shadows. 

An example of this was Madarame's museum; when she noticed that the Phantom Thieves were roaming around, it was clear she had to follow them in a very discreet way. Fortunately for the Black Masked woman, the museum was provided with spotlight systems that connected each other with steel bars, which worked perfectly for her. The Thieves weren't skilled as her in that sense, so she could perfectly follow them without them noticing her presence. In some sense, she was kind of like Batman; the heat of battle was one of her areas of expertise, but she still perfectly knew how to move without being noticed by her enemies. 

' _So why the fuck am I screwing up like this?!_ ' was the thought that stung through her head during her infiltration. It was Shujin Academy's director, Principal Kobayakawa, whom Shido decided was not useful anymore, so he gave Akechi the order to kill his Shadow and cause a mental shutdown on him. The palace's shadows weren't such big of a deal, since they were quite weaker than her and didn't have many lethal skills. The place wasn't that complicated to move around either and one would think it would be rather easy to finish up in less than a blink. And yet, she kept messing up! Ever since she went into the Palace, she had been in this constant state of distraction that caused her to be ambushed quite a lot and make the security level raise rapidly. After a few seconds of taking a little break at a Safe Room, she realized what was the source of her distraction.

Ren Amamiya. God-damn that guy made her a complete disaster. Every time she spoke to a boy of her age, she found no problems in responding perfectly to any question they had, since she knew exactly what to say and when to say it. But Ren? Hoo boy, he knew what buttons to push on her. He had these eyes that always reflected an unbearable amount of kindness and sweetness, but that also had a touch of mischief inside them. Every time he spoke was either to say something really nice or just to call her nicknames that he knew bothered her. 'Princess' for example! Like, what kind of guy just calls a girl princess out of nowhere? _Doesn't he have a little slice of dignity?! ...Or decency for that matter! What the hell..._ Then again, during the previous day, all he really did was being there for her and treat her in a selfless way just for the sake of her being okay. Something that made her feel so... appreciated. 

And then she remembered what the raven told her back at the dinner table. **_I don't see a reason why we couldn't be friends. Wouldn't it be nice?_** Ah yes, he touched that spot in her heart. He had no reasons to even look at her with kindness and yet there he was, a guy she barely knew acting out of pure kindness and concern for her, asking nothing in return. This was so disturbing and strange for her since all her interactions were based on interest of both parts; gain something in return for her cooperation. _Why would he do this? I haven't done anything for him anyway._

These thoughts were causing her to slip more than a cartoon walking through a floor filled with banana peels. The worst moment was when she was about to leave, when she was too distracted with her thoughts and got ambushed by a large group of shadows. These shadows weren't exceptionally strong, but they used a lethal strategy against her; one of the shadows cast a Zionga spell that shocked her hardly and a second shadow used this to cause a critical hit on her, while the others smacked her enough to leave her really weakened.

  
"RAGH!! OUT OF MY WAYY!!" the black masked woman couldn't help but yell out of pure rage and frustation when she was able to get up on her feet. With this scream, Loki appeared and cast a Megidolaon that destroyed all the surrounding shadows. As Loki started to vanish, Akechi started panting heavily while taking some healing items, to then leave the Palace feeling defeated and disgusted with herself.

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When she was out of the Palace, she felt extremely bad. There was this hard headache that constantly nagged her, reason why she decided to visit a hospital nearby instead of heading straight back to the hotel. When she was finally checked up, the doctor told her that there wasn't anything weird with her and that the headache was just a result of high levels of stress and that a few hours of rest with the right medicine would make her feel a lot better. Once the doctor gave her the recommended medicine, the detective went back to the hotel room utterly angry and frustrated that she had messed up so much in one tiny job that wasn't that big of a deal.

  
After she arrived to the room and took the medicine, she grabbed her notebook and a pencil as she took a sit at the large desk of the room. The doctor told her to rest yes, but she had homework and had to give good results if she didn't want to have problems. But no-no! The medicine was indeed washing the pain slowly, but to the price of making her sleepy. Adding the fact that she was already tired due to the Palace exploring, her focus was in an absolute zero.

"W-What?! But I'm sure I followed the procedure correctly! URGH FUCK IT!" Akechi couldn't help but throw the notebook somewhere away from her; casually, the direction was to the door, which casually was being opened. Said notebook hit whoever was entering right onto the face. "A-AH! R-Ren! I'm so sorry, a-are you okay?!"

The raven snorted a little when he realized the notebook against his face. He managed to catch the notebook before it could fall onto the ground after hitting his face, and a little smirk formed on his lips. "Didn't know you could throw so hard, princess. Don't worry, I'm fine. How are you feeling today?"

"I'm okay..." she said while moving her gaze towards the desk and rubbing one of her eyes gently.

"Really? Because you seem... NOKAY to me. You actually seem really tired." Ren walked up to the girl and placed the notebook in her hands. As soon as she had it back, she opened back the notebook.

"I'm perfectly okay, thank you very much. I just have a little headache, that's all and I already took the medicine for it, so don't worry." The brunette offered him a little smile, before going back to her homework.

  
"Alrighty then. I'll be taking the bathroom now, gonna take a shower. When I'm done, feel free to use it." Once Akechi nodded, Ren went directly into the bathroom, leaving Akechi by herself to deal with her torture.

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The raven couldn't believe what he was seeing when he came out of the bathroom. The detective girl was laying her cheek on her arms while gently snoring and even drooling a little. _Huh, talk about a change of view_.

"Hey... Akechi-san?" said the raven after walking up to her and gently shaking one of her shoulders. As soon as she felt the touch of Ren's hand, Akechi shot her head up and wiped off her string of saliva, still having her eyes half-closed.

  
"I'm awake I swear...!" said the brunette with a cute sleepy voice while rubbing her eyes.

"You know princess, I'm not a medicine expert, but it's clear you're not in the condition to do homework. You should probably stop for now and rest."

"I can't, I have to give good academic results so that the school doesn't complain about my absence..." Akechi stared down at her open notebook. Ren took a little peek at the page that the notebook was open at and chuckled. "Don't try, you won't understand. It's third year material."

"Huh... This is physics combined with integrals right? Well, your calculations aren't correct for what I see. And if my maths are correct, wrong calculations equal bad academic results. You should leave the physics for later and take a nap; you can continue once you feel better."

Akechi was surprised. Ren recognized the advanced level material she had in her notebook. Did he study this kind of things on his own perhaps? Still, her stubbornness got the better of her, as she shook her head hardly. "But I'm fine! I can do this!"

"Nu-uh, you are clearly not okay. So, drop the stuff and rest for a while, 'kay?"

The brunette crossed her arms while pouting. "Not tired."

The raven couldn't help but snort a little. "You know, you are way too stubborn."

"And who are you to tell me that?!" Said the brunette, while... Sticking out her tongue. "Bleeeeh!" God, she was acting so much like a child. It was so so weird to see her with this kind of attitude; the composed, elegant, charming and polite Akechi, the brilliant detective, the princess of justice, acting like a little kid. Ren thought that the medicine she took could be the source of Akechi's change of behavior, forgetting of all her manners and correct attitude. Before Ren realized it, he found himself laughing at the poor girl.

"Hey! Stop that!" the brunette squealed, trying hit Ren with her fist. The strike was too gentle to hurt him though.

"Okay okay sorry! I'll stop... But" Ren stole the notebook from Akechi, to which she exclaimed a loud 'Hey!' of surprise. "I think I will be confiscating this item, thank you very much~"

"Don't do that! Give me back my notebook you big numbskull!" said the brunette, getting up from her chair, still visibly tired.

"You want it, princess? Then come and try to get it~" Ren started waving the notebook in his hand, to which Akechi only huffed.

The next few instants were basically Akechi's poor attempts of getting back her notebook. She moved her hand towards the notebook, to which Ren moved it away to another side. After groaning hardly, Akechi moved once more, but she proved to be way too slow for the raven who outmatched every single one of her tries to get back her treasured notebook. This happened for a while until the last attempt, in which Ren was sitting on the girls bed while holding the notebook on his lap. When Akechi tried to grab the raven, Ren moved away causing Akechi to drop right onto the bed with her face straight on it. After sitting up while rubbing her face, she pouted at Ren with what seemed to be teary eyes.

"Told ya, I won't give it back until you rest. But if you want it, feel free to come and take it~" Ren placed the notebook on his lap and tapped it a little while wearing a smirk on his lips. Akechi only crossed her arms with the pout still on her face. "Now, take a little nap. I will wake you up as soon as it's dinner time, alright?"

"I'm not tired though...! I don't need a nap!" Those words seemed to meant as a yell, but instead they turned out as a squeak. Her eyes were visibly sleepy, seemingly unable to stay open, and her movements were slow with a slight touch of clumsiness.

"Yeah right, and I'm having a tea party with the queen of England." Ren just rolled his eyes at the brunette's stubbornness. "But alright. If you're not tired, then let's do something. What would you like to do?" Akechi was already opening her mouth, ready to say the very phrase knew she would. The raven's lips curled up into a little smirk of amusement. "Besides studying that is~" And Akechi's mouth shut close, going back to her pouty face.

The brunette rubbed her eyes a little before they went suddenly wide. A little smile started growing on her lips, before chuckling gently at a certain thought. Ren couldn't help but tilt his head to a side, staring at her with a confused look. Suddenly, the young girl stood up and walked past the raven, as if she was going for the window.

"Akechi-san? Where are you-" Before the raven could finish and turn around to see her, he felt a pair of arms wrapping around his neck. His cheeks puffed a little red as his eyes went wide when he heard the brunette chuckling from behind him. "A-Akechi-san?!" The raven started getting really nervous when he felt Akechi's hands, slowly crawling through his neck, past his cheeks and reaching his glasses. Before Ren could say at least one word, Akechi snapped out his glasses. "HEY! What are you doing?!"

Akechi giggled a little before pulling herself away from Ren. "Ha ha~ Now we are even! Want them back? Come and get them, nerd~!" She went back to sit on her bed, while waving around the raven's glasses and wearing a mischievous grin on her lips. Ren gained back his composure and realized how this was her act of revenge against him; since she seemed to be amused, Ren decided to play along and chuckled a little.

"Alright, be prepared princess!" And the fake attack started; Ren was perfectly aware that it would be easy to just snap the glasses out of her hand, since her movements were too slow and clumsy for her to resist. However, he thought the detective girl deserved to have a little bit of her fun after how much he had teased her. He ""tried"" to get his glasses back from Akechi, but it was all futile; the detective girl proved to be the ultimate adversary in this game of taking things from the other. After a while of ""trying"" to get his glasses back from her, the raven sat back on his bed while faking a little frown as he crossed his arms.

"Alright princess, I officially give up. You are clearly too superior, and I can't bring myself to defeat you."

To these words, Akechi's lips formed a smirk of pride, seemingly contented at the fact she had defeated the raven. "Ha, yes! I've triumphed...!" Said the girl with her sleepy voice. Now this was just ADORABLE to Ren. He started wondering if Akechi would actually remember all this actions once the medicine effect wore off; if she did, god the embarrassment would be too much for her to handle. Would he ever get another chance to see the detective princess act like a baby? Well, that was uncertain, yet he hoped he would do so in the future.

Ren chuckled a little. "But to be honest, I don't wish to end up in bad terms with you Akechi-san. So I have an offer; I will give you back this" he picked the notebook from his lap and waved it a bit. "And you will hand me back my glasses, so we go back to be in peace. Whatcha say, princess?"

  
"Bad terms...? Yeah, I don't want that either..." mumbled the detective, loud enough for Ren to hear her. After a few instants, she nodded and got up from the bed (however it is she managed to) and walked up to the raven, holding her free opem hand at him. When Ren placed the notebook on Akechi's hand, the girl moved the hand in which she had the raven's glasses and placed them back on him. The boy started snorting loudly, much to Akechi's confusion.

"Uhm, I don't mean to be ungrateful, but the glasses are upside down Akechi-san."

After Akechi's cheeks puffed up in a shade of pink and a loud huff escaped her lips, she threw the notebook onto her bed and then turned back to Ren. She gently grabbed the glasses and place them properly, with quite an expression that reflected full concentration on her activity, to which Ren giggled a little. Once the glasses were perfectly placed, Akechi smiled proudly and went back to sit at her bed's mattress.

"Okay, now that we are back on good terms, you should take a quick nap. I'll wake up later." Akechi only grunted in annoyance at Ren's words, causing the raven to chuckle a bit. "You know, if you are always this grumpy when you have to go to sleep, then Morgana, my cat, would be a living hell for you. He can be really invested in making someone sleep; whenever I try to stay up doing something, he moves around like it's the end of the world and won't stop until I'm finally sleeping."

Ren felt quite proud when he saw Akechi laugh gently at his comment. "Well, he does sound like a piece of work..." said the brunette a little tiredly.

"Okay, but seriously now. Just close your eyes for a few minutes while I check up my messages and as soon as I'm done, I'll wake you up so we go to have dinner. Pretty fair deal if you asked me."

After a few seconds of just sitting there with a little pout, she decided to give in. "Alright... Let me just take a quick shower and I will nap a bit..." When the raven gave her a nod of approval, the brunette took her pyjamas from the wardrobe and made her way to the bathroom so that she could shower.

Just a few minutes later, the brunette came out of the bathroom wearing her white long pyjamas and forced her body into bed. Once she was laid down, a pain in her head made her bring her hand up to it and grunt a little.

"Huh? You okay there Akechi-san?" Ren got up and walked up to the bed, sitting on the mattress next to Akechi. He had a little expression of concern in his eyes.

"I'm okay, my head just hurts a little but I'll manage..." the brunette's voice was slowly fading away due to her tiredness. 

Ren's lips curled up into a little smile as he brought a hand up to Akechi's head and started to gently pet on it. Akechi's eyes widened a little as she looked at Ren, with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Stop, just go." protested the detective, with what seemed to be a little annoyance in her eyes. This confused the raven, who pulled his hand away in confusion.

"Huh? What is it Akechi-san? Am I botheri-" 

Ren's phrase was instantly cut off by the detective. "Just leave me and go do your things! That's why you're sending me to sleep after all. You just want me to stop annoying you, don't you?" said the brunette with a glimpse of sadness in her eyes.

"What...? No, of course not Akechi-san. Where did you even get that from? I never said something like that at all." spoke the raven with his eyes a little widened.

"But you were still thinking it, weren't you...?" 

"Detective, I sincerely think you should stop saying that. I only told you to sleep because I want you to rest properly, that's all! Nothing sketchy like you're saying." Ren shook his head a little, totally denying what Akechi thought was the reason.

All Akechi did after the raven spoke was stare at Ren's eyes, with a look of suspicion before huffing and turning around to not face Ren. She curled up a bit hugging one of the pillows, as her eyes closed gently. "Just... Go. Don't mind me and go do your stuff okay?" 

Ren was completely shocked by Akechi's behavior. Did he do something for her to believe she was bothering him? That wasn't the case at all though, he just wanted her to sleep a little so that she could feel better before dinner. After seeing how the young detective acted so evasive and even with a little sadness in her actions, he couldn't help but get even more worried than he was before. The teasing games were fun and all, but if he truly made her feel bad then he at least wanted to make it up to her. Even after the detective complained, the raven went back to petting her head gently while wearing a sad smile on his lips. Akechi seemed to be about to complain once more, but instead her shoulders seemed to relax and actually ended up falling asleep. All Ren could hear after a few pats was the gentle sound of Akechi's snores, telling Ren that he had succeeded in his mission.

After going back to lay on his bed, Ren took this time to start checking around the mails that he had been receiving from his friends, who according to Makoto, were using mails instead of IM texts due to the time difference there was between Hawaii and Japan. There was a mail from Ryuji, telling Ren he wasn't missing anything too interesting. Most of the things they did in Hawaii weren't so different from what they did in Japan, except maybe goimg out for a swim at the incredibly clear sea. Hell, the things were so similar to Japan that they even went to Big Bang Burger in Hawaii, just like they did back home. As soon as he read the fast food restaurant's name, something clicked in Ren's mind. The name made him recall what Akechi told him the previous day, that the rankings of the Phansite showed Kunikazu Okumura as the most voted person for the Phantom Thieves to target next. Had the others checked on the Phansite already? Did they know about Okumura's situation? He thought about asking them later, but for now he decided to relax a little. He was already too wrapped up in his course, so Phantom Thief business could wait up until he went back home. Once he was done checking his phone, he placed it on the night desk and laid back on the bed with the back of his right hand pressed against his forehead.

Fifteen minutes went buy since Akechi had finally decided to sleep a little, and Ren decided to check if there was anything good on TV. He didn't find anything really interesting, besides some commercials and some TV dramas that didn't catch the boy's attention. Since Akechi seemed to be sleeping quite nicely, Ren decided to occupy his time for a few more minutes and allow the brunette to rest a bit more. After twenty minutes of playing Dokkan Battle in his phone, he finally got up from his bed and walked up to Akechi's to wake her up. 

"Hey, princess~ Wakey wakey~" said the raven before gently shaking one of Akechi's shoulders.

The detective's body stiffened a little, before she blinked a bit and turned around slowly, trying to find who the person behind her was. Her body seemed to relax as soon as she noticed that it was the raven who was sitting next to her, and a little genuine smile crossed her lips. For a moment she appeared to be truly happy of seeing the raven.

A little chuckle was Ren's response to Akechi's smile. "Morning sleepy head. Did you have a good sleep?" 

The response Akechi could give to the raven's question was sit up on the bed and gently rub her eyes while yawning a little, all followed by a little nod. After she took a look around her, she got out of the bed and grabbed her clothes to then make her way to the bathroom. A few minutes later, Akechi came back changed into her uniform, placing her pyjamas on the bed her as she stretched up a little.

Her face was still very sleepy and it appeared that throwing some water onto her face didn't make too much for her. Ren thought that maybe once they went to sleep for good that night, she would get better by the next morning.

  
"So, how about your headache? Is it still there?" asked the raven with a little smile.

"No... It's gone." managed to speak the brunette while rubbing her eyes gently.

The raven walked closer to the brunette and leaned a little for their faces to be in the same height. "You sure? You better not be lying or your nose might grow larger, princess."

Akechi couldn't help but pout a little, as she shook her head slightlu. "I'm not lying." 

"Alright, if you say so." Ren walked back to his bed and after putting some things in his bag, he turned back to the girl. "You feeling good enough to go and get dinner, Akechi-san? If not, I can find some way to sneak it up here." 

"No... I'll go." Managed to speak the brunette, denying almost instantly the raven's offer. God she was stubborn.

"Okie dokie! We shall take our leave then." Ren walked up to the brunette and gave her shoulder a little pat. "Don't worry, a refined gentleman like me could never leave a lady on her own~" 

After a little pout, Akechi nodded at the raven, and they both abandoned the room to find theirselves walking down the hallway to reach the elevator at the end of it. Ren pressed up the button to call the elevator, but nothing happened. After a few seconds, he pressed it once more and still nothing happened for the past seconds. Press press press press press press press press... nothing. 

"Boy, this thing sure is taking its time huh? This wouldn't happen if we had a private elevator service." Ren chuckled a little, while Akechi only rolled her eyes a bit looking like she was about to fall asleep right there while waitting.

"... Let's take the stairs." suggested the brunette after a few instants of silence

"It wouldn't be a bad idea if you weren't looking like you were about to pass out, princess."

"I won't...!" grumbled Akechi while looking up at Ren with an exasperated look in her eyes.

"As much as you reassure me, I'm fine with avoiding the risk Akechi-san." Answered the raven with a little chuckle.

"Fine! I'll go alone then...!" With those words, Akechi tried to turn and walk to the stairs, only to be stopped by a gentle hand grabbing her own.

"Sorry to break it up to you, but that won't be the case." said the raven with a rather serious tone, before pulling her back into the spot she was standing before moving.

"Just leave me be. I've been fine all this time and I still do fine on my own..." mumbled the brunette while moving her gaze away from the raven and pulling her hand out of Ren's grip.

The more Akechi acted like that, the more Ren was unable to avoid feeling bad and get overtaken by the need of comforting the young detective. It was cute, endearing even, to see Akechi act in such a childish and impolite way since it made an incredible contrast with her usual fabricated attitude. But hearing Akechi speak like this, as if she wanted to be all in her own with no one around her made him worry about how she might feel about having him around as a friend. Was she okay with it? Did she really like having him around? Should he really leave her be?

These thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the elevator doors opening. "Oh well, seems it arrived. Problem solved, no need to take the stairs. Let us go now." And with a nod from Akechi, they both went into the elevator.

Packed was a little adjective to define the state of the elevator. The most graphic example of their situation was a bunch of Inugamis were trying to fit all inside a treasure chest; A PAIN TO MANAGE. The box was so full that both teenagers had to travel one pressed against the other tightly, while hearing the people complain about how little space they had inside the elevator and how some people should've just taken the stairs. _Well, not like it's any different for any of us, assholes_ thought the raven clearly annoyed at the fact the people around only complained and suggested that others should suck it up. Still, the managed to reach the dinning zone.

Ren knew perfectly that if Akechi tried to eat with chopsticks, it would end in a massive disaster, so instead he asked for her to be given a fork. Once both found a table to sit at, the two teenagers proceeded to dig up into their food. During this time period, Ren was taking glances at Akechi from time to time, to check if she was being able to eat without any problems. She in fact had no issues when eating, but she took slow and gentle bites due to how tired and sleepy she was at that moment. Once Ren was done with his own dinner, he waited patiently for the brunette to finish her own stuff. 

After the detective was done with her dinner, both of them took their leave from the dinning room. They both took different turns to brush their teeth and change into their pyjama clothing, with the difference that Ren took a little more time in the bathroom since he had to take a shower. After revolving himself in this huge sensation of peace and calm thanks to the hot water, drying himself and putting on his pyjamas, he came out of the bathroom to find Akechi sitting on the bed holding her legs close to her chest with her lips pressed against her knees.

"Hey princess, what's on your mind?" The only answer was a cold silence... "Akechi-san? Is everything okay?"

"Just like always... The cycle repeats itself no matter what I do..." said the brunette with a huge amount of sadness in the tone of her voice. To this, Ren gently tilted his head before walking up to the detective and sitting next to her. When Akechi felt the bed sink a little more due to Ren sitting down, she pulled her legs closer to her chest. "It's just like in the foster homes. All my good behavior, all the fantastic grades I brought home for my foster parents meant nothing at all to the people around me. To them, all I did was intrude in the families' lives, becoming one more mouth to feed, one big burden in which they had to spend resources and time on. I'm nothing more than a nuisances..." Ren could feel Akechi's voice becoming shaky with every word she said. "A-And now I'm just intruding into your life by making you share your room with me... I-I'm so sorry for being a burden for you, I don't mean to do so Ren..."

This was the first stab into Ren's heart and made him flinch in surprise. Ren had known orphans and children born outside a wedlock that had it rough along their lives, but he could barely start imagining the kind of things she had to go through while in the care of foster families. Through her words and the memory of their talk in Leblanc, Ren could easily catch a possible reason of why Akechi always behaved so polite and wore this constant smile with everyone around her. In the brunette's eyes, she was nothing more than burden for the people around her, and she tried to behave as perfectly as she could so that others would enjoy having her around or tolerate her presence. It was so... awful to think what she had to go through during her childhood. 

Ren couldn't fight the need and placed a hand on one of Akechi's arms. "Don't say that Akechi-san. You're not a burden to me at all, I'm honestly very glad I could share my room with you! You think I would have the heart to leave you alone like that? Hell no." 

The sudden touch of Akira's hand on her arm made her body stiffen a bit, but it relaxed in no time. "But why...? Why would you help me this much Ren? I don't understand..."

He gently gripped her arm while smiling a little. "Well, why wouldn't I do so? You needed me at that moment and I wouldn't doubt about doing it again. I couldn't just back away without helping you, Akechi-san."

The next view was the second stab to Ren's heart. Akechi gently lifted her gaze, with eyes that looked like she was about to cry but still held it in. "D-Does... Does that mean you care for me Ren? I-I... No, I must be imagining things. That's impossible an impossible thing to happen. No one really cares about me at all..." Akechi placed her full face against her knees, as the grip against her legs grew tighter.

Everything began to fall into place. Ren realized that this behavior Akechi had adopted wasn't the attitude of a successful eighteen-year-old high school detective princess, it was from a scared little girl who had been through so much and had no one to support her, give her a hug and tell her things would be okay in the end. A poor kid that had to endure a lot of pain and since people did nothing more than complain about her, she turned out to believe she meant nothing for others and saw her as nothing but a nuisance. The raven's eyes got drowned in an immense sorrow and sadness when he came to this realization.

His feelings beat his sense of reason, making him sit properly in front of Akechi and grab both of her hands. "Listen Akechi-san, I really do care about you a lot. So please, do not hesitate to tell me everything. What exactly happened during your foster times?"

Akechi's eyes widened as she stared into the raven's gray eyes. She didn't pull her hands away from his grip; in fact she gripped them tightly, feeling all the warmth of his skin on her own. "... When my mother committed suicide, I stopped being a child. Instead, I became nothing more than a cipher to be added in an Excel document. The government provides a big amount of money depending on how many children the institution in question has, so they took me in for the government to provide them more money. You have to add the fact that the other children really took a like on bullying me and none of the adults at those foster institutions ever did anything for me." Her fingers entwined tightly with the raven's. "There's a big truth, which is that people value blood relations as if they were ingots of pure gold, so whenever the people at the foster institutions took a look at my files and learned that I was a bastard child they started looking at me as if I was some kind of freak of nature. That's when I learned and understood that there's a big difference between being orphaned because you lost your parents in a tragedy and being a bastard child that got unwanted. The first times I told myself that it was okay, that the next family they sent me to would actually love me and take care of me... But they were all fake hopes. When the institution sent me to a foster family, and they found out about my background, they would tell me that I was a piece of trash that didn't deserve to exist at all. A lot of them would just take me in for the foster care program that would grant them some money. S-Some of them would lock me up in cold basements with no food and keep me there f-for days until they decided it was okay for me to come out..." The grip became tighter and Akechi's shoulder started to shake heavily. "I didn't understand why they were treating me like that. I brought amazing grades, always behaved politely and never complained about anything they did to me. After a while, the social services found out how I was being treated and sent me to a different foster institution, who would see my documents and find out I was a bastard child. It was an endless cycle, in which all I did to deserve it was... exist. I behaved so well and tried so hard in getting people to like me, but it was all useless. No one gave a damn about how I felt or how much it pained me to be treated like trash..."

This was just disgusting in the raven's eyes. He had his eyes widened every time Akechi spoke a word of how she was being treated. How? Just HOW? How could people behave so wrongly towards a poor little girl? How much of a cold heart would it take for a person to treat a scared little girl who was desperate for love and a family like she was nothing more than a burden? Could people seriously be like that towards someone?! It was honestly impossible to believe how society had failed to Akechi. In fact, she had it A LOT worse than any of the Phantom Thieves. This was directly grab a person's life and smash into nothing more than dust. The level of trauma Akechi had inside her was unbelievable and made Ren realize that Akechi couldn't help but push away the people around her. People had treated so awfully without any mercy to the point that all Akechi had known for most of her life was the biggest loneliness in the world. Ren gritted his teeth, doing the impossible to hold himself from making his hands into fists, since he was holding the girl's hands in his own.

Akechi started pulling her legs away from her chest, so that she could sit in a crossed leg position. She still held tightly onto Ren's hands and her eyes met the raven's. "D-Do you really care for me, Ren...?" She managed to ask with a soft shaky voice.

"Yes." Said the raven, with the most serious and firm tone he's ever spoken with.

As soon as he spoke, Ren gently pulled the brunette closer by her hands and once she was close enough, he wrapped his arms around her embracing her tightly. Akechi's eyes widened at the sudden embrace, but she didn't pull back, doing the exact same opposite. Her arms hesitantly crawled up Ren's back and returned the embrace, holding herself tightly against him. Her breathing became gentle with each second that they were hugging each other. The warmth of the moment was so nice and Akechi couldn't help but give in to it.

Ren could feel the brunette gently leaning closer to him, as if she didn't want the hug to end at all. And who was him to tell her she couldn't stay hug with him? She needed him at that moment, and he was totally willing to help her heal those wounds. The raven placed one of his hands on the back of her head and started to rub it gently and slowly.

"Why Ren? I really can't understand... Why do you care for me this much? Why would you care for my well-being like this...?" whispered the brunette, loud enough for Ren to hear her.

"The truth is I don't really know. I just do. When we started interacting, I slowly became more fond to you. When I least realized, I tried to pay more attention to you and your well-being. So I just care for you, Akechi-san..."

"... That answer is so like you, Ren." A soft giggle escaped Akechi's lips. "You make things sound so simple that it makes it hard for me to understand you... S-So, does that mean you're naturally concerned about me?"

"Well, a very wise person once told me once that friendships should grow naturally." To these words, Akechi pulled her face away from the raven's chest to look directly into his eyes.

"D-Do you..." For a second her sight was averted to a side and cheeks got tainted in a shade of pink. "Do you think we can still be friends...? I-If not that is okay, I don't want to for-"

"Yes, without a single doubt." Ren didn't stutter a single bit when he cut off Akechi in the middle of her phrase.

The brunette couldn't help but curl her lips into a sweet genuine smile, before digging her face into Ren's chest. "God, this is impossible to believe Your heart is so pure and carefree, the exact same opposite of mine..."

"Oh come on princess, don't say things like that."

"It's the truth, Ren." Were the words the brunette spoke before her hands gripped the back of his shirt a little. "You would be utterly disgusted if you could take a look inside my heart. If you could only see inside of it, you would realize how messed-up it is and you would end up pushing me away from you. I-I was never strong enough and... I've screwed things so much..." The brunette pulled her face away from his chest so that she could look at the raven.

Ren could only stare confused at Akechi's words. What could she mean? "Screwed up? What do you mean by that Akechi-san?" 

"R-Ren... I... I... can't!!" The next thing that happened is that Akechi aggressively broke away from the embrace, going back as much as she could before hitting the wall at the head part of the bed. She was wrapping her arms against herself, while tears started forming her eyes and leaked their way out to run down through her cheeks. She shut them in a poor attempt of holding them back. "I don't want to think about it! I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to!! ...Please... I..."

"H-Hey, Akechi-san it's okay. You don't have to tell me really. Give me a second." Ren got up quickly and dashed to his bed to start looking inside his bag for something. He pulled out a pack of tissues and went back to Akechi's bed, sitting next to her. After pulling one tissue, he started to gently wipe the tears away from her face with it. Akechi held her eyes shut tightly, still trying hold them back from coming out. "You don't need to hold them in you know? You can cry without restraint."

"I-I can't do that...! I-If I c-cry they will beat me and lock me up in the basement again... I don't w-want to go back there, so cold and d-dark..." Her constant sobbing barely allowed her to speak. She sniffled hardly as more tears started to leak out of her eyes.

"What? Who? Who will do that to you?"

"T-The adults...! They say I-I make too much noise a-and that it's making impossible f-for them to sleep... They always threaten me to throw m-me into the basement if I c-cry or make too much noise...!" Her head started shaking compulsively, and the tears started being thrown to different sides of the bed.

"The adults...?" And it took less than a second to understand what was happening. The adults she meant were the one's she had met in her foster families the institutions had send her to live with. They would do all that to a kid... Ren used every drop of strength he had to not yell out of hate towards the people who had hurt her. Instead, his lips formed a gentle smile and used another tissue to wipe some of her tears. "Listen Akechi-san, we are totally alone here and you are safe with me. Those adults won't do anything to you."

  
"B-But..." All Akechi did was bring her hands up to her eyes, as if she was about to cover them. But before that could happen, Ren grabbed her wrists and brough her hands down to then grip her hands gently.

  
"Listen to me very closely, Akechi-san. As long as I'm here, NOTHING will happen to you. No adult will come to hit you, no one will come to bully you and no one will lock you away in a cold and dark place. Got it?" The raven said this words with the kindest and sweetest smile his lips managed to form.

This was the breaking point for the detective. Tears started to rapidly run down her cheeks as her lips began to quiver intensely. And so, she threw her herself to Ren, hugging him as tight as she could while crying on his shoulder. She even started screaming. "WHY?! WHY MUST THEY HATE ME SO MUCH?! DON'T I DO ENOUGH FOR THEM TO LIKE ME?! CAN'T THEY SEE ALL THE THINGS I DO TO GAIN THEIR LOVE?! I JUST CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE, I WANT THE PAIN TO STOP SO BADLY! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?! I HATE THIS, _**I HATE IT**_!!" Her hands gripped the back of Ren's shirt extremely tight as she nuzzled the raven's shoulder hardly. 

Ren was taken aback with his eyes widened for the sudden embrace, but he returned the embrace. One of his hands started to gently back of her head. "Shhhh it's okay it's okay... Let it all out." To these words, Akechi kept yelling into his shoulder so much that the raven thought se could easily lose her voice the next morning. "There there..." This situation managed to finally break the raven's heart. He always tried to be composed and not show his emotions about things, but this time he was nowhere near composed. All he could feel was hate towards the people that hurt the girl that was now crying her life out in his arms.

After a few minutes, Akechi ceased the yells only to continue with her sobbing. "Listen, Akechi-san, you should really go to sleep. It's been a really long day and you need it." Ren felt Akechi pull her face back and stare at him with a horrored expression.

  
"NO! P-Please I-I don't... I don't want to go to sleep yet... I can't let this moment end..." her voice started loosing volume as her gaze fell to bed.

"But Akechi-san you clearly need to-" the raven couldn't say another word before the brunette started shaking her head rapidly.

"No no no no no no! I beg you, don't go... Don't go away... I-If I go to sleep now, then you will go and abandon me! I would loose the only person that ever cared for me..." she sniffled a little as she wiped some more tears that escaped her eyes.

"Akechi-san... I will not leave. I will be here when you wake up, okay? I promise."

  
Her gaze lifted and her eyes met his. "... Do you swear it? I-If you don't keep this promise I w-will be very sad..." To this insecurity, Ren couldn't help but cup her right cheek in his right hand, wiping one of her lonely tears as a little smile formed on his lips.

"I swear I will not abandon you okay? We are friends, and I would never abandon one of my friends." 

"O-Okay, good... Y-You better be here when I wake up...!" Managed to speak the detective with a little pout on her face.

"Yes yes princess~ Don't worry okay?" The raven winked at her before getting up from Akechi's bed. "Okay, I'm gonna go sleep now. Have some good sleep Akechi-san." He smiled once more before going back to lay down at his bed.

The sounds of the night made Ren fall asleep quite quickly. The hours went by and all there was in the room was a gentle silence that really helped the raven to sleep peacefully. But something managed to interrupt his sleep; he felt as if something had settled down on the bed right next to him. His back was facing whatever was next to him, so after he blinked a little and turned his head, while his eyes attempted to adapt to the darkness, to look at whatever was next to him. His eyes started to widen when he realized that a person was sitting right next to him, with almost no space between their body and his own.

"A... Akechi-san...? Why are you awake...?" he managed to say while rubbing one of his eyes gently. He suddenly felt a hand patting the pillow next to him; it seemed that Akechi was trying to find his face with her hand since it was too dark to see him. She patted spots closer to Ren's face until she finally managed to get her hand on his hair. After gently rubbing the top of his face, the hand started to curiously wonder down his hair, as if she was experiencing physical contact for the very first time in her life. After a few seconds, her hand finally reached his cheek. Her hand was ungloved, so he could feel the chilly and soft touch of Akechi's hand on his skin. Her palm gently rubbed his cheek, causing the raven's ears to heat up a little.

"A-Akechi-san...? Are you okay? What do you ne-" Before Ren could even finish his phrase, he started feeling Akechi's breathing hitting gently against his cheek, something that made him blush quite a little even if Akechi couldn't see it.

"Thank you for everything... I don't know how to thank you enough for everything you've done for me. This won't be enough payment, but it's all I can give you now..." These were the last words Ren heard before he felt an extremely soft and warm touch against his cheek. Warm, so warm. Did Akechi just... kiss him on the cheek? Ren couldn't help but gasp a little at Akechi's action, which cause the brunette to giggle a little at Ren's surprise. 

After this gesture, all Akechi did was rub the raven's head slowly and gently. Ren was so comfortable that he couldn't hold himself awake anymore and closed his eyes slowly, allowing his body to surrunder to the warmth of the moment. But before he fell asleep, Ren heard a few more words that the brunette spoke in a very soft voice, fairly close to his ear. "... Good night, Ren. I hope you have the sweetest dreams." And with that, the raven abandoned the real world to sink into the realm of the dreams.


	3. A Trickster's Rebirth

?????

Since all Akechi knew during her childhood was nothing but coldness, the girl had learned how to value moments that gave her some sensation of warmth. A lot of the foster families she was sent to by the institutions she stayed at didn't treat her as a child; instead, it seemed to that in their eyes she was just a little piece of trash and that they were the only ones mercifully giving her somewhat value. No food for Akechi if she speaks too loud, no water for Akechi if she's not ready when they want her to be, and so the cruelty scale of the punishments she got grew larger as the days went on. But the worst punishment in her eyes, was being locked up in those basements which turned into a mixture of all the punishments her foster parents could give her.

The memory of the humid and cold walls, pipes dripping water onto the floor of the basement, the overwhelming darkness that covered the horizon. That darkness had turned to become Akechi's worst fear; so huge, so quiet and so lonely that it was able to make an essay on Akechi's life. If she had to compare it to a life experience, then there was no visibly difference between that darkness and the way she felt when she found her mother's corpse inside that tub on a dry and cold night of February. The only thing she could do inside that darkness was sit in a corner and cry her eyes off, while whispering gentle words of help that screamed for someone to rescue her out of that pit hell she seemed condemned. But no one came in her rescue... All the tales of superheroes that were there for people in need were nothing but a pure flat l **ie**. Lies, lies, lies, **useless lies**.

And even so, now all she could feel was the gentlest and sweetest warmth between her arms, adding the sweet sound of slow but constant heart beating against her ear. The combination of these things managed to make her own heart flutter and her lips to curl a sweet smile in her sleep. The calm of the moment was all she needed in her life. She hoped that moment wouldn't end at all; she perfectly knew she was a heartless monster that did everything for the sake of her benefit, that her heart was corrupted to the very root, and she was way beyond repair, let alone forgiveness. Even if this kind of warmth and coziness was forbidden for someone of her kind, no one really needed to find out she was giving herself this luxury. Suddenly, a weird sound started ringing in her ear, causing her eyes to shut even more, unwilling to submit herself into the sudden sound. _I don't want to wake up yet. Just... Five more minutes._ But the volume of the sound grew progressively, making it impossible to remain like that anymore and her only response to it was a grunt of annoyance. _Fine fine, I'll wake up...!_

Sunday, 11th of September

The chirp of morning crickets from outside proved to be too much for the detective to handle. There was also this sun ray that sneakily found its way into the hotel room and had no hesitation to brightly hit against Akechi's eye as soon as she opened it. "Urgh god fucking damn it..." a hard grunt appeared on the detective's face, as she hopelessly brought a hand up to her eyes to hide them from the annoying sunlight. "Who the hell turned on the sun...?" After a few instants of struggling to open her eyes and move her head to pull her eyes away from the sun ray, all her eyes could see was the hotel room slightly darkened but still a bit bright due to the presence of said sun rays that disturbed her sleep. Her right arm curled up, allowing her to lift her body as she brought her left hand up to her face to give her eyes a gentle rub and her mouth opened to allow a long soft yawn to come out of it.

A question started to appear in her mind, and she didn't realize when she asked out loud. "What happened last night...?" She tried to recall the events of the previous night after her and Ren had dinner. However, she really couldn't recall that much aside of a voice really close to her, telling her it was okay to cry and that didn't need to hold it in. Did she really cry? But before she could dig more into her thoughts, she felt her gaze started to clear up and adapt to the environment. As this happened, Akechi couldn't help but notice how the distance between the bed she was lying at and the window seemed to have shortened up. But wasn't her bed closer to one of the walls?

Suddenly, a second noise interrupted her thoughts; it was a very soft sound that still managed to overlap the chirping of the crickets from outside. "Huh...?" The detective's eyes couldn't help but trail down in the attempt to find the source of the strange sound. And what she found made her face heat up so much that not only it could easily boil water to the right temperature for a perfect cup of coffee, but she also wore an intense shade of red, so hard that she could be compared to a fresh cherry tomato. 

Lying right next to her was the raven haired Ren Amamiya. Then Akechi realized that the sound source was actually Ren's mouth, since he was emitting soft and peaceful snores. He seemed to have felt Akechi's presence, because his eyes blinked a few times before they started to open up slowly. His always messy hair was even more messy in its morning state. The raven's lips quivered a little as he started to sit up slowly, while his right hand gently rubbed his right eye. "Mmm..." Once his eyes were fully open and adapted to been awake, he couldn't help but give the brunette next to him a soft smile. "Morning princess~ I assume you had a really good sleep~"

Akechi was frozen for a moment and within the next second, all she could manage to do was pull herself away as much as her body allowed her to, causing her to fall off the bed. "A-AH! R-REN! I'M SO VERY SORRY! I D-DON'T KNOW HOW I ENDED UP I-IN YOUR BED! ALL I REMEMBER IS THAT-"

"Hey don't sweat it, Akechi-san. I don't honestly know how you ended up here" The raven deeply stretched with his eyes shutting down for an instant. "Mmmm but I don't really mind. I was pretty comfortable myself, so I really have no reason to complain about your presence~" Once Ren finished stretching, he got off the bed and turned to the brunette, who was still red as a beet.

"A-Are you seriously okay with this?! No that's not the issue here, I invaded your privacy! Even if you are okay with it, that doesn't take out the fact it was wrong of me." Akechi shook her head quickly, being incapable to hide all her shame and embarrassment. "Oh my god what have I done?! God-damn it, I really didn't mean to do this Ren!" The detective got up quickly and clasped her hands together. "I'm very very sorry, I hope you can forgive my indecency!"

And so, the Detective Princess Akechi was back to normal. But the raven didn't mind it though, since she was still acting quite adorably. Ren went to the window and opened the curtains, allowing the sunlight to fully enter and light up the room. "You are forgiven princess. After our little heart-to-heart last night, I can't say I'm surprised that happened." Said the raven a little teasingly.

"Our h-heart to heart...? What do you-" And so the memories of the previous night flooded her mind, like a huge tsunami. The moment they came back from the dinning room, Akechi had this overwhelming feeling of sadness that made her recall the awful treatment she had when she was younger. The raven had been there for her and offered his shoulder, giving her permission to cry as much as she wished to. "O-Oh... I'm sorry for bothering you with my problems last ni-"

"Don't finish that phrase." spoke the raven while picking up his phone, having his gaze still focused on Akechi. "I'm glad you opened up like you did last night. When I heard you speak about the things you had to go through, I felt furious and wished I could've been there when you really needed someone to be by your side. So..." A soft and sweet smile formed on Ren's lips. "I hope you can forgive me for not being able to meet you earlier."

 _What...?_ He was apologizing to her? For something that was totally out of his control? The brunette suddenly felt an immense pain, as if someone had stabbed her chest with the sharpest knife and moved it around trying to tear her heart open. She felt bad for having the boy apologize to her as if it was his fault she had a miserable life; the only one in fault of that was Masayoshi Shido and no one else. After she shook her head, with her face starting to clear up from her previous blushing, she got up as her gaze firmly set on Ren. "Please Ren, do not say those things. Even if you couldn't be there for me at the foster homes, you were there for me when I felt the weakest. I really appreciate that, as I appreciate every single gesture you had with me so far, so thank you Ren." With these words, the brunette's lips curled up into a genuine smile.

The raven threw her a wink. "No need to thank me, princess. I could never turn away if a saw a girl crying, like what kind of gentleman would I be? So don't worry too much about it, 'kay?" And so Ren's smugly and flirty attitude took over, much to Akechi's dismay... or amusement. All the girl did to this was roll her eyes wearing a little smirk on her lips with her crossed arms. 

"Yeah yeah, you truly are a fine gentleman." The brunette couldn't help but feel like she had grown fond to the boy; she enjoyed his presence and talking with him gave her a big sensation of relief that she could really get used to. A thought crossed her mind for a moment. "H-Hey... Besides the 'heart-to-heart' thing, d-did I cause you any problems? I honestly cannot recall that many of the events from yesterday, but if I caused any problems-"

"Nope, zero, no problemo. You didn't do anything troublesome, aside of being a bit impossible." Akechi could swear she was a glimpse of disappointment in the raven's eyes when she said she didn't remember much, but it was quickly brushed off with a chuckle. "Although, you do own me a pack of tissues after last night."

The detective took a quick at the crash can that was placed under the desk where the TV was standing at. Indeed, it was full of used tissues. This brought back the feeling that she had been burdening Ren, and her left hand gripped her right bicep tightly. "Yeahhh, I guess I do..." her gaze didn't move towards the raven, as if she was trying to avoid his eyes. "R-Ren, the things I told you... If you feel uncomfortable around me because of the things I told you, then I won't judge you for avoiding me from now on."

"There is more chance of me winning the lottery than that happening." When the brunette lifted her gaze to see Ren, she noticed that he had walked up to her and placed his hand on her head, rubbing her head gently, with his lips curled in a kind smile. "With all the things you told me last night, I don't think I would have the heart to just walk away as if nothing happened. I mean, what are friends for if not to be there when the other needs them, am I right?" 

The brunette's gaze fell down to the ground and her cheeks got tainted in a soft shade of pink. Truth was, she still had doubts about it, but the raven's words were slowly making their way into her heart managing to soften her up. "Y-Yeah... Thanks for that..." as if she had lost the courage to speak, she barely managed to whisper these words. To this, the raven answered with a few pats on her head, which made the brunette relax the grip on her bicep. If this was part of having Ren as a friend, then she was really glad the raven insisted in being friends with her.

\---------------------

After their little talk, Ren and Akechi making their way towards the dinning zone of the hotel so that they could have breakfast. It was around 7 AM the moment the teenagers reached the large room, so it was easy to guess there would be a lot of people having their morning meals. Some groups of adults having calm conversations, some groups of students a bit older than Ren and Akechi having dumb talks and laughing every once in a while, some families most compound by a mother, a father and one child, with some exceptions of families who had two or even three children. The amount of people was so big that Ren and Akechi had to move around for a few seconds before they could find a table to sit at, although they didn't take an exaggerated amount of time. After rolling around through the room, they finally found a table for two people and took a sit there. Afterwards, they took turns to get their breakfast; one waited at the table so that they wouldn't loose their spot while the other went to pick up their meal. And so, they started to dig into their food.

The raven noticed how silent Akechi was for the first ten minutes they were sitting at the table. He really wanted to ask her if she was okay, but knowing that would only make her uncomfortable and evasive, he decided not to push things unnecessarily. But a sense of surprise overtook him when it was Akechi instead who spoke first. "Hey, Ren. How do you feel about your future now?"

"Hmm? What do you mean, Akechi-san?" Asked the raven with a quizzically look in his eyes.

"Well, the first day we came here to have dinner, you said that when you were arrested, you felt scared that you would lose your chance for a better future. You did say you are doing okay now, but how do you feel about your future? Are you still scared about not being able to move on?"

"Ah, what a tricky question, detective. Sounds like something you would ask." The detective rolled her eyes when saw a playful smirk cross Ren's lips. But he went back quickly to being serious. "Well If I'm completely honest, there are times in which I'm scared of what lies ahead for me. But after all the things I've done since I moved to Tokyo, I decided that I can't avoid moving forward. And so, I will walk with my head straight and I will not back down no matter how awful the situation may be."

Akechi hid the fact that her shoulders had tensed up with Ren's words. Her heartbeat started to increase rapidly, with her mind stuck at one particular thought. If the raven turned out to be a member of the Phantom Thieves, what would happen if Shido's trap succeeded? Everything Ren had accomplished, everything he had fought so much to achieve after his arrest, all the friends he had... All of it would be gone in nothing more than a finger snap. The brunette couldn't help but swallow a little, nervous at the very idea of seeing her only friend loose all the things in his life. The raven didn't deserve such an awful future, he had a lot to live for. 

But then, a memory of the first day appeared in her mind and her lips curled into a smile. "The Phantom Thieves huh..."

"Eh? What was that princess?"

"Well, you just triggered a memory of something else you said two days ago." Her gaze lifted to find the raven's eyes. "You see Ren, when people find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation or hard moment, they tend to do two things. There are the ones who give up everything, and there are the ones who decide to put their belief into something so that they won't lose their stand. Back then, you told me that you saw in the Phantom Thieves a spark of hope for society to grow and make the world a better place, so logically, that means you believe in them."

Ren rested his elbow on the table, to proceed and place his chin on his palm. A little smirk crossed his lips. "Ah well, you're not totally wrong in your thoughts, Akechi-san. I do choose to believe in them and their actions. How about you? Do you have something to believe in?"

The sudden question managed to take Akechi aback, and her eyes widened up a little. Her gaze went back downwards in her attempt of granting the raven a proper answer, but she couldn't really give him one. At first, all she believed in was her hate; she thought that everything she did was worth doing if it contributed in her goal of getting revenge against her father. All the bruises, all the scream, all the blood and every single death would be totally worth the while once she managed to massacre Shido with her own two hands. But if he asked now, then she couldn't answer him. She was doubting herself a lot more than usual actually, so most of her thoughts were nothing but a mess. "I... don't really know. I don't know what to believe in, if I have to be honest with you."

Ren offered the brunette a reassuring smile, that did seem to comfort her a bit. "That's okay, Akechi-san. It is really hard finding something that you can put your faith on without a single doubt. I mean, look at me! If you asked me before I moved to Tokyo, I would tell you that I lost all my faith in things and there wasn't any hope for me. But now, I do have something to believe and it took me quite a while to gain back my faith." The raven moved his eyes upwards and his lips pressed into a line, as if he was thinking. "And if you don't mind me saying this..." the brunette raised an eyebrow in confusion, as the raven's gaze went back to focus on her. "I'm pretty sure that you are the kind of person the Phantom Thieves try to give hope to; people that are in real need of it."

Akechi couldn't help but chuckle at the raven's words. "Give hope to? Don't you think they could be doing this just for the glory and praise they get from the public?"

"Huh..." Ren frowned, visibly conflicted by Akechi's question. "Well, I sincerely hope not... I mean, you know my thoughts about them."

"Yeah yeah, don't worry, I understand you Ren." The brunette offered the boy a genuine smile and a chuckle escaped her. "But we should just wait and see what happens, now that their popularity is as big as it is. To be honest, If the Phantom Thieves blindly follow the public's opinion and do as they say, then it'll just prove that I was right in my assumption and that they'll do anything to gain more fame or attention from the public." 

"Well then princess, we will just have to agree to disagree... Even if it breaks my poor heart." The raven placed one of his hands on his chest a bit dramatically, which only earned him an eye rolling from Akechi. As soon as he did it, he went back to being serious. "Though, I honestly hope you will find something to place your faith in, even if it's not in the Phantom Thieves. To be honest, all I wish is for you to have objectives and goals; motivations to live on and enjoy life at its fullest."

Did revenge count as a motivation to live on? If not, well that would be a shame because Akechi had only lived up until that day just by following her insatiable need for revenge against Shido. But then again, she was doubting that motivation... Nevertheless, she gave the raven a playful smile. "Thank you, Ren. You really are a marvelous person, and I hope you a bright future." 

And so, they started to talk about other things until they were finally done with breakfast. They said they're goodbyes, before they both parted at the hotel's entrance each to a different direction.

\--------------------

The rest of the infiltration into Kobayakawa's went practically perfect; Akechi was at her fullest, even a little more motivated than usual. Sharing that breakfast with Ren truly made her happy and it seemed to give her extra energy for her infiltration. She moved swiftly and even with a little grace, winning every single battle with the shadows that crossed her path, not raising the Palace's security level at all, and she even got some interesting and rare items that she could really use in the future. It was hard to believe how a single talk with one person could make her so motivated and give her such a sensation of trust in herself. It took her almost nothing to finish the rest of the infiltration, finally reaching the last safe room of the Palace.

As she entered into the Safe Room, some thoughts started coming up into her mind. She started considering what she had been doing until that moment. She had caused disasters, injured and killed so many people... Did she really want to cause all this? _Of course I don't! I'm only doing this things because..._ She needed to. Because she had to follow Shido's order without questioning them so that he would place his trust blindly on Akechi. Because once Shido trusted her and got to be Prime Minister, she would finally be able to get her- _Revenge..._ Yes, that revenge that had been her motivation for so many years, what kept her alive and gave her a reason not to slice her own throat. Was it really worth it anymore? Did she really feel revenge would give her any satisfaction at all? Seconds went by in which all Akechi did was reconsider how much her revenge had lost its value.

  
"Ah, why are you doubting so much, young one?" The sudden sound of a voice made her jump in surprise, before she realized who was the owner of that voice. It was Loki's. The persona that was born from all her hate, from her desire for the sweet taste of revenge. He represented every single one of Akechi's darkest thoughts; all the things she imagined doing to Shido and his goons, all her hate towards society for abandoning her... Loki was the vivid image of all that. "You have come this far through this path of revenge, and now your mind is doubting your resolve? You cannot back away from it; you've taken people's lives and ruined their families' just for the sake of finally accomplishing your goal. If you give up now, then all the pain you've caused would've been meaningless. Is that what you wish?"

  
"Ah, filthy excuses are the only thing that escape your mouth, Loki!" And so, a second voice joined the inner conversation. Robin Hood, the hero and protector of the weak made his entrance. This persona represented Akechi's morality, her wish to bring justice for the weak, the need to bring criminals down for the sake of... Justice. It would be accurate to say Robin Hood directly represented HER JUSTICE. "For the sake of this senseless revenge?! To finally give justification to one's past deeds?! What you're doing is hide the truth with pathetic and worthless excuses!! What's done is done, and there is no way to erase all the pain and sadness she had brought upon others with this twisted objective."

"... Robin is right, I cannot erase my past..." agreed the black masked woman with a little touch of sadness in her eyes. "B-But..."

"Ah, so you're going to side with him on this matter? Quite a coward move if I might say." Akechi could feel Loki's voice tone grow deeper within her head. "Do you seriously think there is any chance of you getting a place in society after the despicable acts you have committed? That anyone would ever want to associate with a criminal and a monster like yourself? Do you think REN would ever be able to look at you when he finds out? All he will do once he finds out the truth is despise you and wish he had never talked with you. He will HATE you, with every single inch of his heart."

Akechi's lips couldn't help but quiver underneath her black helmet. She thought of the raven; his sweetness, his kindness and all the support he gave her during the previous night. Would he regret doing all he did for her? Once he got to see the monster within the depths of her twisted heart, would she be able to find that characteristic kindness he wore during the past days when he looked at her?... No, that wasn't the case. If Ren Amamiya was indeed a Phantom Thief, then he wouldn't just hate her, he would **abhor** the mere thought of having her close to him.

"Yes, it is as you think, young one. You aren't worthy of a place in society, let alone the right to be loved by anyone. There is nothing else for you to believe in other than yourself and your hate." Loki's chuckle made Akechi's eyes shut down. "You have to teach him pain. You have to show him what's like when someone rips away everything you have. All the suffering will be worth it in the end. You are so close to finally getting your revenge..."

Loki was right on that; she had nothing more than a few steps before getting back at Shido. But as the seconds went by, Akechi started to feel like that revenge had grown pointless. Suddenly, her hands started to make tight fists as she thought of all the acts she had committed. She perfectly knew what it was like to be all alone, to suffer the most raw pain and, she most certainly knew what it was like loose something dear. How? How?! **How could she be so stupid?!** How could she think she had the right to ruin countless lives for the sake of getting back at someone who had ruined her own life?! ...But now, she was too far into the road. Could she really stop this constant destruction and do justice?

"Ah my young lady... There's no way for us to undo our past. The pain and suffering you've caused will never go away, but you can still go back into the right path and finally make things right." Robin Hood spoke with a soft and gentle voice, as if he was sitting right next to her. "Think about it wisely. You have a lot of insider knowledge that you can use to stop future catastrophes before they even begin. If your will to do things right proves to be strong enough, then things will turn as you wish them to do. You must have hope, young one."

"Ah... Hope." A little smile started to form on Akechi's lips, recalling the words Ren had told her during breakfast. **_And if you don't mind me saying things, I'm sure you're the kind of person the Phantom Thieves wish to give hope to_**. Could it be true?

The so-called Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Could their motivation be something so selfless like giving people hope? If so, then they were no different from the ideal superheroes she enjoyed so much on reading and watching on TV. People who wished to bring good to the world, choosing the others before themselves and acting for the sake of Justice and Hope. Robin Hood had been born after the side of her that used to believed in the idea of heroes like that, who fought for nothing more than justice, could exist in the real world. The idea of the Phantom Thieves caused her thoughts to diverge into one person.

Ren Amamiya. The raven boy; a selfless kind-hearted that guy that thanks to being in the wrong time at the wrong place had lost everything. He had been spit on by society, dismissed by his classmates, hated by his hometown and sent to Tokyo to fulfill a probation for a crime he didn't even commit in the first place. Thanks to his assault record, people would start judging him through it, instead of taking the time to actually meet the real personality of the raven. However, this wonderful boy still found a way to smile in a bright way and think positively about the future. But the truth was he didn't deserve all the cruelty he had suffered, so if the Phantom Thieves were as kind-hearted as the raven, did they also deserve all the things that would come with falling into Shido's trap? The answer was quite obvious. _Hell they don't!!!_

When Akechi first came to find Shido, she was completely clueless of all the things she was getting herself into with that choice. All the things that she would have to do under Shido's orders, the atrocities she would have to do just for the sake of gaining his trust. So, with that in consideration, she thought that there were high chances that the Phantom Thieves were just as clueless as she was back then and that they needed someone to pull them away from the disaster they would get themselves into. If not, then the Phantom Thieves would not only lose their futures and whatever they could have, but their lives could also be in massive danger; the organization was very much capable of chasing them down and killing every single one of them if they found out their identities. Someone had to guide them... **SHE** had to guide them!

"Oh, so that's it? You will follow the path this cartoonish dickhead tells you to follow?" Loki was utterly furious at his wielder, but his voice remained calm. "I will only tell you this once more; no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you wish to pay for your mistakes, no one will care at all for you. Ren will never forgive you; he will hate you."

"I don't care if he or anyone ends up hating me." The brunette lifted her gaze and took off her full helmet, allowing her hair to run free. Then, she turned her sight down to stare at the helmet in her hands. "Ren reminded me what's important to me. He has shown me the light so that my vision would clear up. I must do things right, no matter what the outcome may be. Do I have to live up to his words and believe in something?" She placed the helmet on a table at the center of the Safe Room. "Fine! Then I choose to believe in justice! I may never be able to gain people's trust or love, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I've fucked up big... No, I've fucked up more than anyone could ever do. I have no future ahead of me and I might even end up dying for all the things I've done..." She looked at the helmet, with this intense gaze of determination while making her hands into tight fists and throwing one of them to a side. "But if I can save the Thieves from falling into the same pit I have, then I'm willing to do it no matter what happens to me! I will pay whatever price I must, as long as I can give them a chance! I must believe!"

"Faith..." Loki's voice echoed through the detective's head. "And so you will deny me now? With that new resolve you have, you are throwing away everything you accomplished with my help. So that means you will just dismiss me? Will you just deny my existence, while you follow this so righteous path? What will become of me then?"

Suddenly, the brunette started laughing into her hand. "Oh please, don't think you will escape from this. Just as you helped me cause the worst deeds, you will now have to grant me the power to do what's right." She picked up the helmet, wearing a determinated smile. "As I said before, nothing I do can change all the things I did because of my need for vengeance. But I can't keep overlooking the fact that I was the one who forged this path of destruction, and just as I managed to do that, I should be able to finally do good for once in my life. Just as you gave me the power the first the moment rage consumed my heart, you will grant it to me now, that my eyes have been cleared. We must look forward now, Loki." She put the helmet back on. "I could never dismiss you, since I am thou..."

  
"... And thou art I. I see." Loki's chuckle echoed through the brunette's head, causing her to gain an incredible feel of security, while it also fueled her determination. It was obvious the Persona was afraid to be thrown away just like that, into absolute oblivion. But how could Akechi ever deny something so important to her as all the emotions that had been the reason she still kept on living? "I believe Ren's attitude is rubbing up on you already; you sound as determined and confident as he does when he speaks. Very well, young one. If you so wish for it, then I shall grant you the power to become the light to guide others. So, allow me to be your strength through this new journey..."

Akechi totally agreed with Loki, offering him an amused laugh. Surely after how much her and Ren had been interacting some of his attitudes would begin to blossom in her heart. He was one of the main reasons why she chose to do the right thing now; his words motivated her and made her remember what is that truly mattered. Do the right thing because no one else would.

And so, the detective brunette finally set up her mind; she was going to help the Phantom Thieves and stop them from falling into the trap Shido had prepared for them. The first step to achieve this was to somehow make Principal Kobayakawa survive but be in a state that would also make Shido believe that he had no chance of surviving and spilling the beans about the organization. As she went out of the Safe Room, Akechi put some good thought on how to manage this trick. _If I just tell him to go back to his real self, Kobayawaka will remain normal and Shido will start to be suspicious. If only there was a way to cause a mental shutdown and guarantee his survival... Wait, that's it! I can ask the shadow to put his real self in a coma! That way he would stay alive but Shido wouldn't see him as a menace! It's worth the shot..._ Akechi giggled a little as she made her way discreetly through the rest of the Palace, to find herself in front of an inmense door.

This was it, the final room of the Palace where Kobayakawa would be in for sure! She opened the door to find an incredibly large room that was pretty much like Kobayakawa's real life office in Shujin Academy, but with some differences. One of the big differences was that instead of being showered in brown colours like the one in reality, this one was tainted in reddish coloring and had a lot of diverse portraits of Kobayakawa, using different types of outfits and posing in ways that TRIED to make him look at least a bit photogenic. Akechi frown out of disgust when she took a glance at the pictures that surrounded her. The second one was that the desk and the chair that was behind said desk were quite large, and the chair was the finest chair Akechi had seen; painted in a deep blood-red color with two golden wings on each side of it, with the symbol of Shujin Academy embodied on the back of the chair with what seemed to be black can paint. And the third and last, was the size of the room itself, considering that the principal's office wasn't that big to begin with. However, the brunette wasn't surprised a single bit for this detail; it was rather stupid to not believe that someone so affiliated to power would consider their office as a big refined room, though it still made Akechi quite disgusted.

As soon as Akechi entered the room, the chair behind the desk quickly turned, revealing the disgusting and sweated figure of Principal Kobayakawa. He was wearing a crimson suit with a black tie, with golden cuff links decorating his sleeves. The Shadow seemed to be quite aware of someone's presence inside his Palace, but once he realized it was no other than the Black Mask. "I-I can't believe it... It's really you...! The constant pressure of the media a-and that last call I had with the SIU director. It's really because of him." The shadow's eyes started to get a bit teary. "A-A-And if you are here then that means..."

"That he has ordered me to get rid of you? Yes, you are correct in that assumption, Kobayakawa." Akechi's voice turned out to be a bit distorted, thanks to an especial effect of her helmet, but still spoke loud and clear for the shadow to hear her words.

The chubby shadow couldn't anything asides of getting up from the chair and walk slowly away from Akechi, who approached and stood a just a few meters away from him. Kobayakawa's shadow couldn't help but to start crying out of desperation and terror.

Akechi made a disgusted face under her mask. "Urgh, can you please stop crying? It makes me want to vomit, and you didn't even let me finish what I was saying" The Black Mask crossed her arms on her chest. "Now, lately I've been feeling quite merciful, so I've decided to spare your poor life. Now that you understand the consequences of involving yourself with dangerous people like Shido, that's enough reason for me to back away. In fact, I actually mean to propose a deal to you; that is if you don't plan to cry yourself out."

The sudden crude attitude the Black Mask had with him made Principal Kobayakawa cease his pathetic sobbing. "H-Huh...? What k-kind of deal do you mean...?" The poor shadow looked frightened to the very flesh of his bones.

"Good, you finally stopped being a cry baby; we're making progress~ " Akechi chuckled as she turned back and walked over to the desk, taking a sit on it. She crossed one leg over the other, holding the knee of the top leg with one of her hands, while she used the other to raise a finger and point at the shadow. "So! I've been following you for quite some days now and I've noticed that you've taking several turns in your daily routine to pass by the police station. That could only mean you, poor silly and dumb soul, have been planning to report Shido to the cops, haven't you?" 

Kobayakawa shadow's body stiffened and his eyes widened, surprised at the fact that Akechi had been following him around. She got him good. "I-I..." That stuttering was enough to response to Akechi's question.

"So it's true. Well, you must not report him. If you do, then you will put between the sword and the wall; his influence on the police has no limit, and if you sneeze they will for sure wipe your nose." The Black Mask moved the foot of her top leg as if she was tapping the floor. "The only way for him to be tried in a court is to somehow get the public against him and that won't happen for quite a while. See where I'm getting at?"

"N-No I actually don't. I m-mean if he is already after me now, that I haven't done anything at all, then what stops him from getting rid of me?! He will get me one way or another!" 

"Well, that's the thing. He already ordered me to kill you, which also puts me in the obligation of getting rid of you. However, there is a way to hide you and avoid getting caught." She rested her elbow on her top leg and her chin on the palm of her hand. "But for that plan to work, we must make you pretend to be dead." 

Kobayakawa's shadow seemed extremely surprised by Akechi's statement. "H-Huh?! How could I do that?!"

Akechi sighed heavily. Was this shadow stupid? Almost all Palace's rulers knew how this worked. "Well, you may not realize it, but you have a lot of influence in the real Kobayakawa. What you have to do is go back to real self and pretend to have a mental shutdown, putting the real Kobayakawa in a comatose state. Shido is aware that a mental shutdown victim is capable of surviving, although they end in a comatose state, which to Shido is the same as being dead already. So, if we leave you in that state the suspicions he has on you would vanish, since you'd be practically dead and at the same time, he won't think I disobeyed him." A little smirk crossed Akechi's lips as she tapped her left cheek with her left index, hand in which her chin was resting. "And once a case has been structured and all of Shido's crimes come out to the light, you'll return and testify against him without the need to worry about any inconveniences happening. I would need to start tying up some knots for this plan to work, but it's the best we've got."

"His crimes come out to the light...?" Then the shadow's eyes widened up at the realization. "So you're going to ask the Phantom Thieves to target him?! Is that part of your plan?!"

"Mmmm... Well yeah, something of the sort." _Not_. Truth is, she wanted to make the Phantom Thieves back away and help them avoid the trap. The REAL IDEA was to ask the Thieves about how the accomplished to change a person's heart and use those methods against Shido. But aside of that, she didn't want to put them through the big danger that came with targeting Shido; she had seen Shido's Palace, and it was for sure one of the most well crafted Palace's she had ever seen. It was not really surprising since Shido had full access to the cognitive psience research, which gave him one or two tricks on how to modify his own cognition. She hadn't gone too far the times she went in his Palace's, since all she did was try to get a glimpse of what she would have to face once she betrayed him, but what she saw in there was indeed worrying. Security dogs and even guards with automatic guns, not to mention the laberyrinthine corridors and that the shadows were incredibly powerful. If the Phantom Thieves even tried to go into that cruiser, they would get crushed in no more than a few seconds and her whole plan would go to waste.

"I-I see... Okay then. I'll t-trust you on this one, since there doesn't seem to be another way for me to survive... T-Thank you for sparing me, Black Mask..." And with these final words, the shadow accepted the deal and started to vanish into thin air.

The brunette couldn't help but stare at the fading shadow, seemingly surprised by what was happening. This had never happened with any of the other palace rulers she had to take down. Did talking to him just make things go different? However, an event pulled her out of her thought abruptly. The Palace's ground started to shake compulsively and the walls were beginning to fall down, warning Akechi to abandon the Palace before it was too late. 

The detective girl jumped right off the desk and hurried herself to the door, but something caught her eye as she was about to leave; something she didn't quite notice when she got in. Between two pictures, one of Kobayakawa dressed as the SIU director and the other in which he was wearing Shido's outfit, there was a pedestal above which there was a cloudy thing that appeared to vibrating. What the hell was that thing?? However, Akechi didn't have much to think about what that thing was because the Palace's collapse grew with a lot of velocity, and she didn't want to be trapped in there. 

She started running through the Palace, avoiding the pieces of ceiling that were falling dangerously near her. Whenever she saw a path was blocked by debris, she would summon Robin Hood or Loki to smash the debris down and keep on with her running. After running for what seemed to be like forever, she managed to make it out of the Palace and return to the real world. When she checked on the Nav, it read 'Destination has been deleted.', which could only mean the Palace had disappeared. 

Akechi checked the time on her phone... "Huh, 12:20 PM. Good, I was there for less than three hours. This means I have time to go, prepare my things to go back home and I still have time to have lunch with Ren." Thinking of seeing Ren and have lunch together really brightened her up and a smile sneaked its way to her lips. And with that, the detective made her way back to the hotel, smiling proudly, because soon, she would start off her crusade for justice against her father. But before anything else happened, she had to take a run to the pharmacy.

\-------------------

The third of the course was finally over, and truth be told, Ren had been looking forward for it to end. He paid attention and all, but he had been quite concern about Akechi grew inside the boy's heart thanks to what happened the previous night. And how could he not be worried about her? She cried and yelled. The raven actually couldn't help but wonder if the people in their neighbor doors complained to the hotel staff about the yelling they heard in the middle of night or not. But, that wasn't all. There was this tiny thing Akechi said, nagged him like crazy.

' _You would be utterly disgusted if you could take a look inside my **heart**. If you could only see inside of it, you would see how **messed-up** it is and you would push me away from you..._'

Well, Ren did have a way to take a look into her heart. He didn't find a time to do it before, since they both worn out the previous night and, he had the course until lunchtime, but he was totally free now; wouldn't hurt to try. With a little sigh, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the Meta Nav. "Detective Princess. Goro Akechi" 

_Candidate not found._ There was no hit in the nav, so Akechi couldn't have a Palace. This made the raven's shoulders relax a little, since he was afraid he would have to heal her heart with his Phantom Thievery, but luckily he didn't have to. Her heart wasn't distorted... _So why do I feel so unsure...?_

Ren was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of the door cracking open, causing him to quickly put his phone back in his pocket. A soft humming could be heard from behind the door, before he saw the brunette entering and closing the door behind her.

"Well well well, if it isn't the Detective Princess?" Said the raven with a little welcoming smile, which made Akechi return him the smile. However, before the detective smiled at him, Ren could swear he saw a little of surprise in Akechi's face when she heard the raven speak.

"Oh, hi Ren! Sorry if I looked somewhat shocked when I saw you, I'm just not that used to have company when I get home. Since I live alone and all that, I don't have many people to greet me once I get home. Anyway! Here, I got you something..." the brunette started walking towards Ren while she searched inside her bag for a few instants. Some struggles later, she pulled out just bought pack tissues. "I guess you could say I've paid my debt, don't you think? I was coming back when I passed by a pharmacy and remembered the tissues I owned you. Here, have them." She handed Ren the pack of tissues with a smile before sitting at her bed's mattress.

The raven's lips hardly quivered, while emitting a loud snort, just to end up erupting into a massive laughter. He really didn't expect Akechi to actually buy him a new pack of tissues to pay back for the ones she had used, but he was still pretty contented with the action. But his surprise grew even larger when, instead of stuttering and growing a blush on her cheeks like he thought Akechi would do, the detective girl started to laugh along with him.

"What are you laughing at Amamiya?? Did you think I would leave this debt unsettled? Oh hell no, couldn't leave you without your precious tissues." Akechi giggled, seemingly clueless of how relaxed her attitude had become

  
"Well, both me and my nose thank you for the tissues princess. We couldn't live without them." The raven turned back to his own bag so that he could put away the tissues. Once he was done, he went back to look at Akechi. "You also seem a lot more relaxed, which is honestly a big relief for me. Told you we would do great as friends."

"Yeah... I guess you were indeed right. It makes me very happy that I finally have a friend, and that said friend is you." A big genuine smile appeared on Akechi's lips, to which the raven responded with a thumb up and a wink.

It was a weird, yet very nice feeling. After so many years of being lonely, of being so afraid to socialize with other people because she thought they saw her as a nuisance, after all the pain... She finally got a friend. I didn't even matter to her if it was just Ren, it was still enough to make her heart spin around in joy. Ren couldn't contain himself though, and had to push a little tease. "And now I can say that I'm friends with a princess~ You know how incredible is that? Like, a hundred out ten for sure."

This tease came out with the solemn puporse of make the detective laugh, and hell it worked. Akechi started bursting in a spontaneous genuine laughter, as if she were a kid watching a white comedy cartoon. "God you can be really stupid if you put your heart to it, Ren!"

"Well, a lot of people would say it is an essential part of my charm, princess. But oh well, nothing I can really do about it~" spoke Ren with a little smirk, which got him the infamous eye rolling from Akechi. "Anyways, now that we are both here, why don't we go and have some lunch, Akechi-san?"

  
"That actually sounds like a fantastic idea my friend; you're free to believe me or not, but I'm so hungry that I could eat easily a bridge." The brunette patted her stomach a few times before getting up on her feet. The raven chuckled at Akechi's words, seemingly entertained by her.

"Very well then, allow us to part." And with that, Ren stood up on his feet and gave the detective a nod. Afterwards, both of them took their leave and headed towards the dinning room. It was around 1:10 PM at that moment, so it wasn't unusual to see that there weren't that much people around the dinning room. They were the ones having lunch a little later than they actually had to, since lunchtime was from 12 PM to 1:30 PM, so most of the other people were excusing themselves from the dinning room. This was actually quite the benefit for the teenagers, since they managed to find a very good table near the window, giving them a full view of the beautiful fountain that was at the center of the hotel. After taking turns to get their meals, both of them started to have a little chatter about how their day had been so far.

"So tell me princess, how did your case go? Did you manage to solve it? Though, knowing you, I'm sure you solved it with no problems whatsoever. What was the case about anyway?" Ren took a bite on his food after he finished speaking. 

To the raven's question, Akechi patted her chin with one of her index fingers while puffing one of her cheeks. "Well, I can't tell you much about the case itself, but what I can tell you is that I have solved it with quite ease. In fact, I would dare to say that it went incredibly well and that I'm quite satisfied with the outcome it had!" Akechi nodded and a big smile drew on her lips. "But enough about that Ren, tell me about your course! What is it about? You still have one more day right?"

"Oh right, I'm sorry I never told you about it." The raven lifted his gaze from his food to the detective. "Well the course is about how to start a business. You know, analyzing when a business idea has potential to succeed as an actual service, the whole paperwork you have to deal with, the hierarchy of a business, this kind of things mostly. Then there were the issues you had to deal with once you actually started it, like you know, costumer treatment, employee treatment, distribution of salaries and so on." Suddenly, the raven gaped a little in a realization. "Oh! As a matter of fact, we actually had a special focus on employee treatment today. This was mostly because of our tutor was aware of the rumors of slave labor related to President Okumura, you know the ones you told me." He took another bite on his food and after swallowing his food, he kept speaking. "Our tutor didn't seem sure about the veracity of said rumors about Okumura and the slave labor, but he said it was a perfect example of how we should never treat our own employees."

The thought of Okumura's palace caused the brunette to shiver, though she managed to hide it. Instead, she gave the raven a firm nod before taking a bite on her food. "Indeed. Slave labor is a despicable thing to do, and it should be properly punished like any crime. But then again, there are people that still get away with it, and I can't help but feel disappointed at that." Realizing her own words, the detective started waving her right hand from side to side. "Ah! But of course, you are not the kind person that would do something like that! You're actually quite the opposite of that!" Akechi seemed conflicted a few seconds after she spoke... "But you know, I've got a question that I never had the courage to ask you Ren. Mind if I do?"

"Shoot out girl, no need to ask for permission." Spoke the raven with a big smile, while adjusting his glasses a bit.

"When we had dinner during our first day here, you told me that you were invested in both Mathematics and Economy. Now, with this in mind, I thought your course would be related to something like the Math Olympiad or something like that. Are you not into that kind of things anymore?" Akechi had a puzzled look in her garnet eyes. "I know that Economy is indeed related with starting a business, but you gave me more views of a Mathematician than an Economist or a businessman. I don't mind to sound offensive about it though."

"Ahhhh, I see... No, don't worry, you aren't the first person." Said the raven while shaking his head, following this with a giggle. "The truth is I was indeed looking forward for the Math Olympiad of 2016. I signed in before and all, but when the event that lead me to have an assault record happened, they kinda... kicked me out. I felt quite frustrated, decided to move on and just forget about it." He had a little frown of the brief moment he explained, but the frown was quickly replaced by a smile. "When I moved to Leblanc and saw Sojiro running his café, I found out what I really wanted to do. I want to start a business! My goal is to create a place where employees do not see work as a constant burden and where costumers can make some good memories. Basically, a place that brings people together instead of splitting them apart, get what I mean?"

Akechi couldn't contain her giggle of amusement. _That's Ren Amamiya for you people._ "Yes, and that sounds a lot like you as a matter of fact. With that kind of attitude in your mind, I'm sure you'll be able to achieve that dream if you put enough effort to it!"

"Your words motivate me quite a bunch detective, thanks a lot." Ren gave Akechi a little wink and a big smile. "Though, that dream's still quite far from becoming a reality. Just like Sojiro says, I have a long way to go, many things to learn and experiences to get. But, I still have a lot of hope of fulfilling that dream, so I won't give up on it."

Well..." Ren tried to not feel endeared by how the detective's cheeks puffed up in a soft shade of pink. "I wish you the best Ren. I really hope you manage to achieve that incredible goal you have."

"Awww princess, how sweet of you~" Ren chuckled teasingly, earning an exasperated huff as a response. After a few minutes of chatting around while finishing their meals, both teenagers decided to go and head back to their room.

  
\--------------------

Akechi was finally done with Kobayakawa's infiltration, and she had no other business to handle there. She decided it was finally time to go back home and prepare a report for Shido about the situation with Shujin's principal, since it was still a necessary action. Still, she was very concerned about how things would turn out with the principal; she told him to pretend to have a mental shutdown, but she couldn't know for sure if the chubby man was okay until she heard any news about him or saw him herself to confirm that the planned didn't go wrong. Sadly, there was no way to be sure, at least for now, so all she would do now is go back and return to her daily life... ' _But things will be somewhat different when I get back._

"Hey, Akechi-san." The voice of the raven calling up for her took her out of her thoughts, as she turned around to look at Ren who was just sitting at a chair near the window while checking his phone.

"Yes Ren? What is it?" asked the brunette with a curious look in her eyes.

"I was thinking... Like, I know you said you would stay until Sunday if things went well, and they did go okay. Not that it's a bad thing tho!" The raven shook his hands for a moment, much to Akechi's confusion. What was up with him and why was he acting like that? So... nervous. "But I thought... Well, the reservation is all the way up to Monday and it's still pretty early right now, so I was thinking we could maybe..." Ren was blushing?! Not intensely, in fact it was just a little, but still him blushing?! No way. "Go hangout somewhere. You can stay in my room the night, and we can go back together once I'm done with the last day of the course. I mean, if that's okay with you of course, wouldn't want to force you to do anything you didn't want to."

"Oh...?" Akechi felt... Well she didn't really know how to feel about the view she was having. The tough and composed Ren Amamiya, asking like a shy kid for her to stay around and go out together. All the girl could manage was smile at the boy's shyness. "Well if I go today, I won't have anything to do for the rest of the day, just bore myself out to death. So sure! I mean, that is if you honor your self claimed gentleman title and pay for our hang out~" the brunette teasingly giggled at the raven, who just pretended to hold his chest in pain.

"Dammit, using my chivalrous against me. How could I ever allow this to happen?" This act made Akechi laugh in such a genuine way that it made Ren adopt a smile of his own. It was so nice to see the detective act so... loose around him. "Of course I will pay though, no worries on that area. I would be a little more concerned about what will happen if people recognized you."

Ah, yeah that. How would people react when they saw Goro Akechi hanging around with a boy? What weird rumors would the public start to spread around? _Damn, what a problem._ But then, Akechi's eyes opened wide. "Oh! Well, I have a hair tie inside my bag! I can put it on and leave my peacoat and just go with my long shirt. With enough luck, we can pull it off." 

Ren placed his chin between his right index and thumb considering the options. "Sounds like a plan. Well then, surprise me princess! Show me how different you can look." He took a sit at his bed mattress, closing his eyes a bit. The detective gave the raven a deadpan look, visibly annoyed by the raven's action.

"I'm just gonna take of my peacoat, no need to shut your eyes dumb dumb." But Ren insisted on keeping his eyes closed, to which Akechi sighed in exasperation. Then, she proceeded to unbutton each of the buttons of her peacoat and take it off. Under said peacoat she was wearing a long sleeved shirt that wasn't exactly big, but didn't show off Akechi's womanhood either. Then she grabbed the hair tie and grabbed just some of her hair, tying it up in a middle placed ponytail; not to tall and not to low. She still allowed some of her hair loose, since she didn't quite like the idea of having all her hair tyed up. But this wasn't enough... So she took off her gloves and placed them on her bed, leaving her hands free. "Okay, open your eyes and tell me how I look." The raven seemed to hesitate for a second, but he gasped a bit as if a huge idea had come up to his mind.

"Wait! Before I do..." Ren took off his glasses and extended the hand he was using to hold them. "Put these on. I bet once you put them on, you'll be unrecognizable."

Akechi raised an eyebrow at the raven. She moved her gaze down to stare incredulously at his glasses and then look back at him. "Seriously? What kind of incognito mode would I be using?" Nevertheless, Akechi took the glasses from Ren's hand, causing him to chuckle. And so, Akechi put on the raven's glasses. "Okay, done. Tell me if I look any different."

As soon as Ren opened his eyes and looked at the detective in front of him, all he managed was to whistle. "Maaaan, who are you missy? How did you enter into my room and what did you do to Goro Akechi?" 

"Ha ha, very funny. At least I know I'll draw less attention with this look." Akechi crossed her arms over her chest while frowning at the raven.

"Seriously though, I didn't even catch your name! And honestly having a girl in my room and not knowing her name makes me quite uncomfortable." With these comments, all the raven earned was an annoyed chop of Akechi's hand on his head.

"Tohru Adachi." Was all the brunette spoke when she head chopped Ren.

"... Are you serious? That's the best name you can come up with? That sounds more like a boy's name." Was he really acting like this? Or was it just an act to bother her? Because if it was the second, then he was being really successful.

"Ah is that so Ren dear? Really? I guess Goro Akechi must be the most feminine name on Earth for you then." And her Loki side appeared, but I didn't scare the boy. Instead, all he did was laugh at the detective's sudden sass.

"Okay, I take it back no need to be so sassy, princess~" He clapped his hands together and got up from the bed, giving the brunette a firm nod. "Alright Tohru Adachi. I heard there's a really nice café a few blocks from here, so let us go and enjoy some coffee." 

The raven expected Akechi to grunt or at least be visibly bothered by his attitude, but instead, she followed up in his game, giving him a firm nod. "Very well, let's go." And so, both teenagers abandoned the hotel room, making their way down to the hotel lounge and followed their path out of it. As they abandoned the hotel, the gentle breeze of late summer afternoon received them along with the fantastic addition of the sunlight hitting on their faces. And so, off they went, walking down the bright streets to find the café. 

  
\-----------------

Happy. That's how Akechi felt about the situation around her; even with her poor excuse of an incognito mode, she felt a sincere happiness for how nice things went for her at that moment. She was happy she finally got herself a friend, happy she didn't have to act so polite or wise ass, happy that she was walking down to just a random café that her friend found out about during their stay. 

It was also a very nice afternoon to go out. The sun was bright but not so intense that it could burn your skin like a sausage, just a soft gentle touch that warmed up the skin. The teenagers passed by a park in which they saw a bunch of kids running around, playing different games, stumbled and tripped just to get up and run again to chase each other. It was a lovely view that managed to make the detective crack a smile as she walked by the raven's side. The rest of the walk, she stayed quiet and appreciated the fact that Ren didn't push her to speak. Instead, she allowed her thoughts to take over her head. Most of these thoughts were related to her sins she had committed under Shido's orders. It was hard to recall them because of them managed to leave a certain impact on the brunette, but there was one that every time she remembered it, it would make her feel like the worst person in the phase of the Earth.

Wakaba Isshiki, the cognitive psientist by excellence. It was one, if not the first, of times she had to take a life for Shido. According to Shido, she was a researcher with an incredible talent and intelligence, that had been studying cognitive psience for quite a while, and he told her that this research had a lot to do with the Metaverse. In fact, whoever possessed this research would gain the ability to learn how to manipulate their own cognition or even other people's cognition, so it instantly became one of Shido's priorities to get it for himself. And if Shido wanted desperately, then she had to act. Back in those times, she was fifteen years old and had no clue of how the Metaverse actually worked, so she wasn't truly aware of what would happen if she killed someone's shadow. But Shido's words to this were _Nothing will happen Akechi, she will just pass out and loose consciousness_. At first, she did have her doubts about how it didn't sound so logic for that to happen, but her need to gain Shido's trust got the better of her, and she followed his command. With this action, Akechi took the first step that lead her to become a monster. What she found out three days after she had acted was that not only by killing her shadow she caused a mental shutdown on the real Wakaba, but she had become a monster by killing the mother of a thirteen-year-old child. In her stupid need of revenge, she had caused the very same pain she had suffered to someone else, and now they would have to live a life without their mother and God knew what was the father up to. That day, out of pure rage, she hit the wall of her apartment for twenty minutes straight until her knuckles began to bleed due to the striking. Miserable wasn't enough to describe how she felt for the weeks that followed Wakaba's death and the memory of her shadow crying and begging to let her live still came back to haunt her from time to time.

The sound of a voice calling out for her managed to stop the thoughts from making her have a panic attack. "Hey... You okay there Akechi-san?" She turned her gaze to find a pair of gray eyes looking at her with a slight amount of concern in them.

"Y-Yeah! Sorry, I was a little lost in my thoughts, didn't mean to space out on you like that." The brunette managed to gain back her composure and offered Ren a smile. The raven stared at her for a few seconds as if he didn't buy it. Buy instead of pressing, all he did was sigh before returning the smile.

"If you say so, princess." He then turned his gaze up and his body turned in the direction he was looking at, which was Akechi's right side. "Anyway, we're here. Welcome, my dear detective, to 'Marie Antoinette'!" Akechi turned her gaze to find the place Ren was referring to. She found that her and the raven were standing a meter away from a door that was painted with a shade of white, close to cream, decorated with green lines that followed the door patterns. Above the door was a sign with the name 'Marie Antoinette' written in italic dark green letters, with two white hearts both at the start and the end of the name. Akechi analyzed the entrance of the café to then turn her gaze to the raven, wearing a little smirk on her lips.

"So I take it that now you're affiliated to French, Ren? Now that is a little odd." Spoke the brunette while pushing some of her free hair behind her ear.

"Sorry to disappoint you princess, but no. My knowledge in French starts and finishes in the name of this café. Now then" Ren grabbed the door knob and opened the café's door, signing Akechi to enter. "Ladies first~" The brunette just rolled her eyes and entered into the café, with Ren following her and closing the door behind them.

Contrary to Leblanc that was quite rusty and little, this café had some elegance and could be considered to be large in comparison. There were some beautiful glass lamps that hanged on the ceiling giving the place a proper amount of light. The walls and floor were all white but the walls had patterns of green lines on them, that went all the way from the entrance and split up to the rest of the café in between walls. The people around didn't seem to be old; most of them seemed to be in their mid twenties or so. Akechi and Ren could hear chatter about university studies, living alone experiences, things that were quite typical for college students. As soon as they entered, a waiter walked up to them, asking them if they would like a table for two. Once the raven and the brunette nodded, they were both guided through the shop until they reached a comfortable corner table with cushioned chairs. As the waiter excused himself from the teenagers, they both took a sit at each chair. Fortunately, no one asked for the brunette's name and their table was a little separated from the rest, so the raven thought it would be okay to use her real name as long as it wasn't too loud.

"Well, I've got to say, this is quite the place you found Ren." Akechi couldn't help but look around her, noticing how no one noticed who she was. 'Maybe this incognito mode is indeed effective' "Quite aesthetic if you asked me."

"I'm glad you liked the place. I heard a few people in my course saying things about how this place had very good coffee and food, and I thought it would be a good spot to relax." Ren let out a little chuckle and whispered a little. "But I doubt the coffee will be the same quality as Leblanc though." The raven earned a laughter from Akechi thanks to that comment.

"That isn't something that can be put up for debate. We both know how incredible Sakura-san's coffee is." Akechi made a sign for a waitress that was nearby to come over to their table. Both of them ordered a Blue Mountain coffee, with Akechi giving herself a reward for a well resolved case. Along with her coffee, she ordered herself two croissants. Once the waitress had taken the orders, she bowed to them and walked off.

"Yeah... This place kind of reminded me of my hometown, in fact. When I saw a bit from outside, this café reminded me to a place I used to go to with my parents, when I was little, so I guess the nostalgia was a pretty heavy factor." The raven looked a bit through the window, allowing him to have a fairly nice view of the streets.

"I see... Even after what happened to you, you must really miss your hometown. I mean, you got quite neglected by the rest of the town's people after your arrest, but you still made a lot of memories in that place." The brunette crossed her arms against her chest. "Add to that the fact that your parents are still back there, and that they were your only support when you had to move all the way over to Tokyo, so it would be dumb to assume you don't miss them."

"My my, you've been using quite the vocabulary this Akechi-san~ Never thought you could insult or anything like that." Said Ren with a big grin on his lips, which only earned him the hardcore eye rolling from Akechi.

"If you must know, I actually feel a lot more relieved on how I express myself around you. You're my friend, so I see no reason to be all polite and smiley since you've seen my true colors." Akechi didn't mean it, but her words came out a little bitter which managed to make the raven crack an expression of concern. _Oh boy, I screwed up. Gotta fix this._ Just as she was about to speak, Ren interrupted her.

"Do you feel comfortable? With all this I mean. Like... Me being your friend, does it really make you feel better?"

Akechi tried to contain a snort at the sudden question. "Of course I do, Ren. Why would you ask something like that?"

"It's just..." Ren passed a hand through his hair to then place it of the back of his head, as if he was a little embarrassed. "Well, yesterday when you took your medicine you were acting quite evasive and I would even say repulsive, before we talked about your past. I know that after everything you told me, I shouldn't even doubt it, but I'm still worried you might think it's all forced and stuff like that. I'm just trying to make sure that you actually feel comfortable being around me and that you aren't hiding your discomfort for my sake. So, that's why I ask, do you really feel comfortable with being my friend?"

Akechi was holding herself from slapping the raven across the face. On one hand, she felt he was right about being stupid to ask if she was okay with their friendship when she literally blurted all her childhood to him and even cried on his shoulder like a scaredy girl; that was a clearly a big sign that screamed 'Hey, you are an incredible person and I've never felt so comfortable with anyone else in my life!'. On the other hand, she couldn't help but feel quite endeared by the fact Ren still wanted to make sure she felt okay with it. After a lifetime of being pushed around, without being asked if she felt okay or if she wanted to go to those families they sent her to, someone was taking her feelings into pure consideration. It actually made her feel scared of how much Ren would regret treating her so sweetly once he learned the truth behind the Black Mask.

Some seconds of thought later, Akechi adjusted the glasses she had on and a little smile crossed her lips. "Listen Ren, I know that it must be confusing for you. Yesterday I was... Quite out of control, and was all over the place without any kind of filter. In that process, I spat out a lot of things that I wouldn't tell anyone, and even after knowing I did so, I actually don't regret it. You allowed me to stay at your room, you accompanied me when I was somewhat sick; you only treated me the best of the best." Then, her face went somewhat sad. "I'm just really new at this... Like I told you, I had literally no friends at all and I now suddenly have a friend like you, which is honestly a little overwhelming. Don't feel like you are doing anything to discomfort me or such, I'm just trying to adapt to this new experience, okay?"

The raven's shoulders visibly relaxed, and he allowed himself to crack a smile of relief. "Thank you Akechi-san, your words are honestly a big relief for me. And I'm sorry if the question seemed... dumb? Stupid? I was just a bit worried."

Akechi chuckled at the raven as she waved one of her hands from side to side. "No, don't worry about it, I understand." A sudden thought crossed her mind at that moment; something she had never considered happening before that moment. _Maybe..._ "Also, Ren..." A little blush appeared on the brunette's cheeks along with her gaze turning away from him. "If we are on friends basis now, you're free to call me by my first name. I don't mind about it."

"... You want me to call you Tohru? My, that's quite the progress." Said Ren while laughing intensely, to which Akechi blushed more and glared at the boy.

"You know perfectly what I mean, Amamiya." Were all the words that came out from the brunette's, and it was enough for the raven to stop.

"Okay okay, I'm done teasing. Though I gotta say, I'm glad I'm not gonna have to be the only one to get called by my first name. As I said, it is quite some progress... Goro-chan~" 'Stop' didn't seem like a word that appeared in Ren's vocabulary, but then again, how could Akechi expect him to do so? This was Ren Amamiya after all.

"You're impossible, you know that?" Spoke the brunette with a loud sigh and exasperated eyes.

"I prefer to call it 'charming personality'." Responded the raven while throwing a wink and wearing a smirk on his lips.

"Being impossible is a more realistic name to it, trust me." Countered the detective with a raised eyebrow.

After a hardcore look from the brunette and a few laughs from each of them, the waitress returned to their table with both of their orders. The rest of the afternoon, Ren and Akechi enjoyed their coffee and talked about different topics; Akechi's work as a detective, what was Ren's hometown like, their respective academic lives and how Ren struggled when he just arrived to Tokyo, and so on and on. Finally, the sun started to settle down on the west, signing the teenagers to start taking their leave and go back to the hotel. Akechi thought she was quite lucky, since she received no messages from Shido about an interview or so. She expected him to do so, since after the whole Medjed versus The Phantom Thieves situation, the public was in desperation to see Akechi's words to it, most of them to just mock her about how the Phantom Thieves were becoming so successful. 'Argh who am I kidding? He will let me know, so I should forget about it for now.' She was having a nice time now, and that's all that mattered in that moment. 

They walked back to the hotel in a pretty calm pace, since they weren't quite in a rush. It was around 7 PM, and even though it was a little late, there was no need to move up fast and the evening was just ideal for a walk. Even if they didn't talk so much, every once in a while one would start a short chatter between them, they were both contented with how smoothly the hang out had gone. Things seemed so simple for both in that simple walking, for Ren, there was no Joker, no Monabus, no shadows, no treasures, just Ren Amamiya hanging out with a cool friend. And so, for Akechi there was no Black Mask, no orders from Shido, no mental shutdowns, no killing, just Goro Akechi hanging out with her new friend. Others would find it hard to appreciate this simple moments, but for how twisted Goro and Ren's lives were, that moment was actually as precious as a diamond. If only things could be this simple and calm all the time, then life would be so much easier...

\-----------------

After a few more minutes of walking, the teenagers reached the hotel. Once they entered, the receptionist that welcomed them the first day of their stay, welcomed them once more with a smile.

"Hello Amamiya-san, Akechi-san. How are you two doing? I didn't expect you to be back quite late." Spoke the receptionist with a kind and gentle voice.

"It was quite a beautiful day, so we kinda lost track of time, sorry for that." Tried to justify the raven, but the receptionist just shook her head to his words.

"Please, no need to justify yourself. I'm just a little surprised that's all. Now please, do not mind me and proceed to the dinning room; dinner will be served in a couple of minutes."

  
"Thank you very much for warning us, miss. We will be heading our way then." Said the brunette with her polite persona, bowing a little to the receptionist. And so, they both headed to the dinning room. Nothing too interesting happened there; it was just dinner time when they arrived, so there were quite large amounts of people when they went into the dinning hall. They took turns to get their meals and ate their food while chatting a little about their lives. Once they were done with dinner, they headed back to their room with both of them practically jumping onto their respective beds. Akechi was the first one to speak after a few seconds of a tired silence; she had to turn her head to the left side to look at the raven, because her face was stamped against the bed.

  
"Listen, Ren. I'll text to my work and tell them I will return a little later than I thought, but could you please have your stuff ready tonight? It would be best to leave as soon as we are done with lunch."

"Say no more, I was already thinking about doing that anyway. You better be ready as well, or I won't wait for you." Spoke Ren with smirk on his lips, before getting up and starting to preparing his bag. 

  
Akechi just snorted at the raven, before forcefully getting up from her bed and starting to pack her own things inside her bag. It didn't take that much time; since the stay was short, both didn't pack that much clothing and only had some things in case of an emergency happening. Afterwards, they took turns to go to the bathroom, brush their teeth and take their respective showers. When Ren came out after his turn, he saw the brunette going through the TV channels with a big frown in her face, as if she was attempting to find something interesting to watch, but wasn't having any luck with it. Much to both teenagers' frustration, the most interesting thing they could find was a sale's TV program, in which a weird man in gray suit sold quite weird things. 

The detective laid down on her bed, visibly sleepy. "God, I'm going to sleep like a baby now." 

"So I'm guessing you won't give me a goodnight kiss tonight?" Spoke Ren with a playful grin on his face, much to Akechi's confusion.

"H-Huh? Why would I do that?" Asked the brunette while turning her gaze towards him.

"Well, you did so last night, so I was kinda hoping you would do it again~"

"What...? When did I do t-" Strike, the memory came back to her. She did wake up in the middle of the night and kiss the raven's cheek, though she didn't remember it until Ren mentioned the event. Once the memory became clear, the brunette blushed intensely and her eyes went wide, before she started glaring at the boy. "No, don't count on that happening. That won't happen ever again, so don't keep your hopes up."

"Oh you wound me with those words Goro-chan, you can't imagine how much you hurt me." The raven dramatically pretends to be stabbed in his heart, to which the brunette just grabbed one of her extra pillows and threw it right onto Ren's face.

"Now, go to sleep. You have a long morning tomorrow." Akechi was right on that, since Ren had the last day of the course the next morning while she didn't have anything too important besides some homework.

"Damn it now you are gonna play being Morgana while I'm here?! God, I don't deserve this treatment." Ren pulled the pillow off his face and pretended to be grumpy, turning around and hugging one of his pillows. But the brunette was aware of his dramatic personality, so all she did was giggle and turned around to the opposite side, ready to sleep like an angel.

"Good night, Goro-chan. Hope you have good dreams" Told the raven to Akechi with a smile, even if she couldn't really see it.

"Thanks Ren, you too." Responded Akechi with a smile of her own, one that Ren wasn't able to see. And with that, the detective and the gentleman thief fell asleep in the sweet air of the night.


	4. The Start of a Journey

Monday, 12th of September

The following morning comes quite pleasantly for Akechi; she didn't have any nightmares or problems during her sleep, so any possible fatigue she could have accumulated during the events of the past days was completely gone. The room was quiet and the curtains were only half open, blocking some of the sunlight that attempted to make its way in. The sound of birds gently whistling and the constant chirping of crickets from outside served as a catalyst for the detective girl's waking up process. There was no real way for Akechi to know what time it was, since the sun didn't seem to be quite up in the sky but it also didn't seem to have just started risen either; all the brunette knew was that it was already morning time, but she didn't want to get up. Instead, she tucked herself deeper into the bed, pulling the sheets closer to her face in an attempt to fall asleep for a few more minutes... But she didn't manage to get back to sleep.

With a loud grumble of annoyance, the detective girl sat up on her bed while rubbing her eyes and letting out a loud yawn. When she took a glance at the bed that was next to her, she noticed that it was empty. _Probably he went out... Wait, did I really sleep that much?_ At the sudden realization that Ren had the course that day, she went quickly to pick up her phone from the night table and checked on the time. 9:28 AM. _No wonder he is not here, his course starts at 8 AM!_ The detective put back her phone on the night table, but managed to notice a folded piece of paper next to the lamp that was sitting on the table. Curious at its content, Akechi grabbed it and started unfolding it to find a message.

_Goro-chan_

_I write you this note to at least leave a warning of my absence. I'll be back around 12 PM or so today, so you can leave the room and unhook the reservation once you are fully ready to have lunch and leave._

_Ren_

Reading her first name at the start of the note made her feel kind of weird. She did allow Ren to call her by his first name, but she was really not used to it yet and it would take some time to do so. Nevertheless, she smiled at the note, relieved that the raven at least left her something to inform her he would be absent for the rest of the morning. After she placed the note back on the night table, Akechi stretched her arms up as much as she could, allowing a second long yawn to escape her mouth. Once she felt like she was able to get up, she pulled herself out of bed and made her way towards the bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth, giving her hair just the touch of hair dryer it needed once she was fully done with both previous actions.

Since Ren wasn't in the room, Akechi wondered around using nothing more than a towel and didn't rush her clothing process. First, she put on her simple white underwear followed up by her white with soft pink spots bra. With a little grunt, she pressed her breasts down so that they would fit into her bra, fighting the rebellion her chest showed to stay put. "Perhaps they grew a bit more? Damn it, I'm gonna have to buy new ones..." Her chest size was already considerable to other girls' size, and she didn't want to grow past her current one, though it wasn't quite up to her. "Nature can be such a bitch." After she overcame her breast issue and managed to make the bra fit, she proceeded to put on her long sleeved shirt and skirt. She was more used to wear legging underneath it, but since it was post summer at that moment it was quite obvious she would want to avoid the annoying leg sweat the leggings left on her once she had to take them off. Finally, she put on her leather black gloves and slid on her peacoat, buttoning it up completely. 

With her full clothing on, the brunette went to sit at the large desk to catch up on her homework. Now that she was A okay, this homework should be a piece of cake to fulfill, and she was right. Once she started to solve the exercises, the mistakes she'd made on Saturday became clear, and she avoided committing them again. Swiftly moving through her homework, she managed to solve quite a number of problems, but she still had quite a long way to go and decided to leave some to do on the train. With two more hours to fill up with things, she scrolled around her phone looking for possible news on the Phantom Thieves, but there didn't seem to be anything that could be considered relevant. 

So she took another option and grabbed the remote to check if there was something interesting on TV. And she actually did find a movie that caught her eye, which caused her to gasp a little. "Batman Begins! Cool!" The movie was halfway through already, but the brunette watched it with a lot of excitement. Luckily for her, Ren wasn't there to see this side of Akechi; they watched Spiderman together sure, but he didn't need to see how excited Akechi could act when she saw a superhero movie. The scene that was playing was the one in which Batman had Rachel in the Batmobile, driving down the speed at full speed and fucking up the police. "Hell yeah!!" Akechi was having a blast with this movie and couldn't help but throw her hands up in her excitement. If Ren saw her, he would probably laugh at her, but he wasn't there, so she let it all out.

The movie had finished by 11:20 PM, leaving the detective with the perfect timing to leave. She picked up her bag and phone, opened the door of the room and left it, closing it behind her and locking it. A minute or two later she reached the reception to find the same female receptionist who allowed her to share the room with Ren; said woman was looking at some papers with an intense frown. She offered the woman a polite and brightful smile, typical for her TV façade. "Good morning."

The sudden greeting made the woman turn her gaze up, finding the detective's smile. The woman returned her the smile, but it looked a little more tired. "Good morning Akechi-san. Are you going to leave?" 

The detective shook her head a little. "Not yet miss. Me and Amamiya-san will still have lunch before leaving." These words earned her soft chuckle from the receptionist, which made the detective giggle as well.

"Ah, I see. I'm glad you and Amamiya-san managed to get along during your stay here. Are you perhaps friends?" The receptionist asked while tilting her head to a side with a glimpse of curiosity in her eyes.

"Well... We used to be only acquainted, but I could say we grew to become good friends. Thanks to him, I managed to solve all the matters that brought me here without inconveniences, so I'm quite grateful for his help." Spoke the brunette with her classic TV smile.

"That's pretty good; it's very nice to have good friends to help you out. You are young Akechi-san, and you have a lot of things to do before you reach my age. So enjoy your life to the fullest, okay?" The receptionist didn't seem THAT old; she seemed to be somewhere around her old thirties or so, but still looked somewhat young. 

The detective couldn't help but tense up a little at the woman's advice. _I don't know if I'll make it alive through this year if I plan to pay for my crimes though..._ Despite her dark opinion on that matter, the detective offered the receptionist another smile characteristic of her fake TV self. "Thank you for your advice, I will make sure to live up to it miss...?"

"Kazuya. Kazuya Izumi." Answered the receptionist to the detective's indirect question with a kind and brighter smile than the ones she had given to Akechi before. "But please call me Izumi; if you call me 'Kazuya-san' you will make me feel like a fifty-year-old lady. I may not be the hottest chick around, but I'm still far from being old." The receptionist giggled amusedly.

"Ah! Well, thank you very much for your advice Izumi-san. I hope that fate makes us find each other in a not so far future." Spoke the detective, knowing it was somewhat of a lie. She didn't believe in fate, but those kinds of words seem to make people feel comfortable and important. Although... A part of her did hope to see her another time, if the opportunity arose.

"I hope for the same, Akechi-san." And with those words, Akechi proceeded to take a seat at one of the lounge's chairs to wait for Ren. The minutes went by, reaching high noon. With the arrival of midday, people began to appear into the scenery, walking down to the dinning room to have lunch. Akechi decided that it would be for the best to just wait for the raven instead of heading in and reserving the meals. She didn't analyze it in a logical way, she just wanted to wait for him; he did say they would have lunch together after all.

With a loud sigh, Akechi threw her head back and closed her eyes for a few instants, loosing herself in her thoughts. Now that she would return home, she had to think of a day to intercept the Phantom Thieves and inform them about the trap. They would most likely head into Okumura's Palace soon, due to the huge pressure that had been put on them by the public and the social media. Maybe they would go the next day? Probably, she didn't know for sure, but it was worth a shot. The detective also had to think of a way to convince them to tell her how they targeted the changes of heart onto other people. With a lot of time in the Metaverse, Akechi wasn't fully sure on how to accomplish a change of heart; she just knew that a person's shadow has influence on the counterpart of the real world, but that was were her knowledge ended. Maybe they had some special trick she lacked? Maybe it was some twisted thing they did to the shadow? It was all a mystery for her, without an exaggeration. But mostly, she was concerned on how to make them trust her. Coming out and spitting the truth about the trap wasn't going to be enough to make them trust her their methods; she was the one behind the mental shutdowns after all. How? How? _**How?**_

A gentle poke on the shoulder made her jump on her seat and gasp, turning into a full alert mode. "Heyo, how are you doing there Goro-chan?" The detective relaxed a lot when she noticed that the person in front of her was no other than Ren himself, wearing a big smirk on his lips. "Were you about to nap or what?"

"No, I most certainly wasn't trying to sleep." Spoke the brunette glaring a little at the boy, while getting up from the chair she was sitting at. "But if you wish to know, I'm waiting for a certain guy who is actually running ten minutes late, and I happen to be quite affiliated to punctuality." Akechi raised an eyebrow while crossing her arms.

Ren only chuckled with a big amusement at the brunette's attitude. "Oh really? I hope that this poor boy isn't going to have any problems with you." The raven attempted a poor excuse of puppy eyes, earning him a little giggle from Akechi.

"That depends. He did tell me he would be here 'around 12 PM'. I guess it's still a good margin to arrive at, so he won't face any problems, that is if he doesn't mess up. Now then, shall we go and have lunch?" Asked the brunette with a spark of playfulness in her tone, to which the Ren gave her a firm nod.

"Yes, we shall." And once they both gave their keys to the receptionist, the two teenagers made their way to the dinning room for the last time. Compared to the rest of the times they had lunch, they managed to find themselves a table quite easily, which was weird considering how much people that were at the dinning room at that moment. Akechi went to get her food first while Ren waited patiently for her to come back and do the same with him. After a few minutes and some struggles in the lines, the detective and the raven finally were able to dig into their foods. Both of them were trying to hurry the pace, since they had to catch a train to Shibuya that would leave at 1:15 PM, and neither of them wanted to wait for the next one that left at 2:45 PM. It wasn't precisely a short journey, and both wanted to be back home as soon as possible.

  
\---------------

They had no problems in reaching the train; sure they had to eat quick and run over to the station, but they managed to make it at 1:05 PM, ten minutes before the train departed. The train system of Japan was... Strict to put it in a gentle way. If a train had to leave at 2 PM, then it would for sure start its marching at 2 PM sharp, not one minute before not one minute later. That was a thing Akechi loved about the train system; order was a pretty important thing, and she liked when things happened in time without any issues or inconveniences. Ren on the other hand did enjoy punctuality, but he was a lot more loose than the brunette, to the point of being a little lazy sometimes. But if it involved being in time to meet up with someone important to him, he would find a way to get to where the person was in the shortest amount of time. _Poor Makoto, she suffers me a lot on that._ Thought Ren with an amused chuckle escaping his lips.

At 1:15 PM, the train to Shibuya departed, granting Akechi and Ren some nice views along the way. The trip would be quite long, so once Akechi and Ren managed to catch a pair of seats, the brunette tried to strike some amount of conversation they couldn't have at lunch. "So Ren, how was the last day of your course? Did you enjoy it?"

The raven gave a firm nod, along with a big smile. "As a matter of fact, yes I have. Honestly the experience was totally worth it and I don't regret missing the school trip for it. I learned a lot of things that will be of really good use for my goal, which makes me very happy." 

"I'm very glad that's the case, Ren." The brunette offered Ren a genuine smile, before looking down at her lap. The raven noticed she was looking at her notebook, with what seemed to be an expression of exhaustion.

"What about you Goro-chan? Have you finished all the homework you had to do?" Asked Ren with curiosity in his eyes. The only response he got was a soft laughter.

"As a matter of fact, no I haven't. When you were out I did manage to solve a lot of exercises, but honestly? I don't really feel like doing homework right now. All I want to do now is get home and throw myself into bed." Spoke the brunette while turning her gaze back to Ren.

  
"Oh my, never thought the great detective princess would do something like slacking off." The raven giggled in a teasing way. "What happened to the "I need to give good academic results' thing? You're starting to act really weird, princess." Ren could practically feel the sharp daggers the brunette was glaring at him.

"Now now Amamiya, I never said I wouldn't finish it." Akechi stopped her glaring and sighed heavily while crossing her arms on her chest. "I'll just finish it another time. Doesn't have to be right away, so don't worry about my academic results."

"I was just saying, after how you acted so stubborn about studying and finishing your homework, I had grown to believe that you were that perfect role model student that always finished everything in time or even before she had to. I'm just surprised, that's all." Ren placed his hands inside his pockets while keeping his gaze on Akechi.

Said girl seemed to tense up a little, gripping her right bicep tightly. It appeared she didn't quite remember those events, or if she did have the memory, she didn't believe that all that really happened. But if Ren was mentioning it, there it had happened for sure. "So... All of that actually happened? I thought that had been a dream or something of the sort."

"Yep, all that happened. That and maybe some things that you may not recall~ But no need to worry, nothing bad happened. You can trust your favourite gentleman~" The raven threw Akechi a wink, to what she only rolled her eyes.

"I'm being serious here Ren!" She said before lowering her gaze a bit, seemingly embarrassed and ashamed for behaving so stubbornly. "I'm sorry... For acting unruly and give you so much trouble. It wasn't really my intention and the medicine just got the better of me without me realizing it."

"Stop apologizing, I already told you it's fine. In fact, I was quite entertained by the attitude you had back at that time; it was quite unusual to see you act so stubborn and childish, made my day if I'm honest." The raven smiled at Akechi. "All your actions were not only spontaneous but also genuine, and you seemed to be a lot more comfortable in that state than when you put on your celebrity mask. You were acting like yourself, and I honestly prefer for you to act just the way you are."

Akechi couldn't help but blush at the raven's words, but the only thing Ren did when he saw that was giggle as if he was amused with seeing her like that. She wasn't able to lift her gaze at him thanks to the embarrassment. _How can he say things like that with such a straight face?! What the fuck!_ But after considering what the words meant, the brunette cooled down and allowed a sigh to escape her lips. "Well... Truth be told Ren, I crafted that 'celebrity mask' with the idea of gaining other people's approval. I don't remember if I told you this explicitly, but these polite smiles and attitudes are mostly for people to see me as a well-behaved and educated girl. I do all this with the hope they would want to have me around."

"Oh? Polite smiles and attitudes? So you mean that your actual self is unruly? Well, that's quite the surprise." Spoke the raven; Akechi thought he was trying to tease her, but he was wearing a very serious tone and expression.

"Is it really? I mean, you are the first person to... see me acting like my true self." Somehow she found the courage to look at the boy and even smile at him. "What you saw yesterday during breakfast, lunch and at the café. That's how I truly am." Suddenly, her gaze went back down. "But I... Well... The idea of not being accepted makes me really scared. I already told you my experiences with other children back at the foster institutions, and no one seemed to like me for who I really am back then, so I created this false mask of perfection that I wear almost everytime, because I wanted people to stop pushing me away and start liking me..."

"Ah... I see. Well, that is quite a troublesome thing, but a real problem in the end." The raven pushed up his glasses, empathizing with Akechi's feelings. "It's really hard for us to be ourselves and to be accepted by others with all our stuff. I mean, look at me! The reason I got arrested is that I didn't fight myself at that moment and went directly to help someone in need. That is who I truly am and it still got me into problems, if not to say it ruined my life. Many people told me I could've just ignored it and walk away but..." One of Ren's hands became a tight fight. "I could never turn myself away from someone who needs my help, and I don't regret saving that woman." Ren seemed to cool down and his hand relaxed, while his lips adopted a little smirk. "Besides, I prefer being myself before acting like some kind of mindless robot in control of others."

"H-Huh?! Robot?!" Akechi turned her gaze quickly to the raven, seemingly taken aback by the raven's words.

"What I mean Goro-chan, is that every person is unique in their own way. They have personalities and qualities of their own, each with something to give for society. If they would just lower their heads and act as others tell them to be, then they would be nothing more than a bunch of robots following commands. Get what I mean?"

"W-Well, you are right on that but..." Suddenly, Ren could notice a very sad smile on Akechi's face. He could almost feel her sadness as his own when he saw that sad expression on her. "Not everyone can go against people's wishes. I mean, you are really strong. You have an unbreakable will that managed to make you live on, even after everyone judged you for your past. Trust me, just something a little similar to what happened to you would be enough to make me lower my head in a blink. Hell, if my will was as strong as yours then I wouldn't have..." Akechi's eyes became even sadder somehow, as if she had recalled one of her most painful memories.

  
"Huh? You wouldn't have...?" Asked the raven, but Akechi didn't respond at all. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts for an instant. "Goro-chan? Are you okay?"

Akechi's body tensed up hardly. "I..." she started to shake her head rapidly, before pulling her crossed arms closer to her chest. "I don't wanna talk about it, sorry..."

  
"Alright alright, take it easy, I won't push." Ren was immensely curious; aside the moment Akechi cried on his shoulder, Ren never saw Akechi act in such a sad way after that event. She had a sassy attitude and could act like a tsundere, but he never saw her go into the state she was at that moment. The brunette seemed truly bothered and sad, which was enough for the raven to know the topic was delicate and that he shouldn't push it anymore. "I don't know if you remember this, but I told you that went I came to Tokyo, I met a group of friends that really helped me to become a better person. They supported me and taught me how to overcome hard situations with a lot of effort and faith. Maybe that's what you really need." Ren placed a hand on Akechi's shoulder and gave it a very gentle squeeze. His lips were curled up into a kind smile. "You need people that can support you and like you for who you truly are, not for the crafted personality to use on TV. But fear not my lady!" Suddenly, Ren threw one of his hands behind him and the other went straight to his glasses, holding them as if they were a mask. "I, Ren Amamiya, swear to be your friend and be by your side whenever you may need me. I will heed your call without hesitation."

As much as Akechi wanted to roll her eyes, all she could really do was crack a loud laugh, amused at the raven's dramatic posing. "Okay okay, I believe you! No need to keep embarrassing yourself for my sake!" Giggles were all that followed these words. A few seconds later, the raven earned himself a genuine smile of true happiness. "Thank you Ren. For all you have done for me. You really are a wonderful person, and your selflessness and will to help others never ceases to impress me. In fact..." Akechi seemed to have recalled an important memory, because her smile grew brighter. "You are the very first person to help me when I truly need it. No one really helped me before, so I never saw the importance about helping others... But now, with all the things you did for me, I think I understand why it's important to seek for other people's well-being." The detective's smile was replaced by a faked pout. "Look at what you are doing Ren. You're making my whole head a mess! If I don't finish my homework on time, you'll have to take all the blame for it."

"Ohoho, now that is just so uncalled-for!" The raven pretended to be offended by Akechi's statement, but he couldn't hide the smirk that was forming on his lips. "Now you are just using me as an excuse to slack off on your homework! Such a dirty trick for you to use detective!" 

The two teenagers burst in laughter. Akechi felt good for having someone that could watch out for her as for having someone to watch out for. It felt... nice. Knowing that someone would have you back if you needed them and that you could also help them out if they eventually needed you. It made Akechi feel a lot more confident of her goal to help the Phantom Thieves avoid the trap and escaping Shido's claws. This thing of having a friend really had an impact on her, but she couldn't complain about it that much since this new bond was motivating her to do things right.

\---------------

 _Oh my god, what now?_ Was the first thing that crossed Akechi's mind when she felt her phone ringing in her pocket. She and Ren had left the train and were currently walking through the station when Akechi felt her phone vibrate, indicating that someone was calling her. "Excuse me, Ren." She pulled out her phone and used her usual cheery TV tone to answer. "Hello?... Yes... Aha... I see, very well. I'll be there, thank you for calling." As soon as she hung up, she grunted loudly, causing the raven to snort.

"What's up? Not so on for what they called you for?" Asked Ren with a grin on his lips.

"You guessed perfectly. It was from the TV studio, they want me to record an interview." Akechi placed her phone back in her pocket and scratched the back of her head.

"Ah, I see. When will you be recording it, Goro-chan?" 

"Well they expect me to be there in an hour or so. Urgh, what a pain, seriously." The brunette turned her eyes to Ren. "Can't you make me up an excuse for this? I mean, use that 'charming personality' of yours and convince the staff to leave me be for the day." Said playfully the detective with a glimpse of faked pleading in her eyes.

"Even I have my limits to where my charms can get me, sadly. I can't abuse my power too much or else it will stop having effect on others. So you'll have to deal with it." Ren laughed a little while Akechi giggled amusedly at the raven's statement. Still, curiosity arose inside Ren, who decided to ask. "But I thought you liked appearing on TV though; you know, since it's a good method to boost your popularity." The raven gasped dramatically. "Don't tell me you actually dislike it."

Akechi just chuckled Ren's dramatic attitude. "Ready to see your whole world crumble? I don't like it, in fact I hate it, but now it's an obligation for me to appear on TV." The detective girl shrugged before placing one hand on her hip. "Whenever the studio phones me, I'm instantly informed of the time and day of the interview and that they have everything scheduled and I don't really have any chance of bailing out of it."

"You'll be recording it in an hour right? But when will it air?" Asked the raven with his head tilting to a side, showing clear interest on the matter. Akechi just went along with it.

"It'll air tonight, around... 8:30 PM, if I'm correct." At the realization of Ren possibly wishing to watch it, the brunette waved her free hand from side to side. "But it'll be the same thing as the previous times, so you don't even need to watch it."

"So it's gonna be basically you trash-talking the Phantom Thieves? Cruel." Ren couldn't help himself from attempting to tease the detective, which actually worked since said girl pouted at him and crossed her arms all of a sudden.

"Hey! I take offense out of that! I didn't 'trash-talk' about anything or anyone!" The detective tapped her right foot on the floor, visibly annoyed. "All I suggested is that since we are unaware of the methods the Phantom Thieves use to manage this changes of hearts, and we aren't truly sure if they are just or not, they could end up using their abilities for dangerous activities and if that turned out to happen, they should be tried in a court of law. As far as I'm concerned, I'm only doing my job as a detective, idiot!" The sudden 'insult' made the raven laugh, to which Akechi just tensed up in embarrassment. "Hey! What're you laughing at?!"

"Sorry sorry, I didn't mean to offend you like that princess. My sincerest apology to you, detective~" Ren bowed a bit, which only caused Akechi to huff loudly and pout even more. "I admit that my choice of words wasn't the best; what I meant to ask is if you're still going to raise points against the Phantom Thieves."

"Well yeah, I will. I must stand up for my words. " The detective seemed to visibly relax a lot, but still kept her arms crossed and a little wary look in her eyes. "If something does happen in the future that eliminates this uncertainties and that refutes all my points, then I'll have to reconsider the things I said. But until then, I'll stand firm to my points, even if you may not be so okay with it, Ren."

"No, it's okay, I get why you're doing that. Your stubbornness is one of your great qualities, after all." Ren gave Akechi a wink, to which she only rolled her eyes, but still looked more relaxed with every second that passed by. The raven placed his chin between his right index and thumb, as if he started to think hardly. "But still, I can't help to wonder if you'll change your mind if I stick around you long enough. Would be a great thing to happen, if I'm honest."

The detective had to make a huge effort for her inner dorky smile to not come out and be visible to Ren. _You already managed to do so, dumb dumb.._. She couldn't speak her real thoughts or show how she truly felt about him wanting to spend more time with her, so instead she huffed and raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you implying you want to be around me more? I'm feeling so special already."

The raven giggled on his hand, an action that earned him a little but genuine smile. Akechi wished to tell him how he managed to make her reconsider every single one of her life choices, her motivations and her goals in life. But it would involve telling him the truth about her murdering people, so she just saved it all. And besides, there was an important reason for her to oppose the Phantom Thieves publicly; if she wanted to help them avoid the trap, she had to keep acting as if she was on Shido's side for this match. That made her remember, she had to find the Thieves as soon as possible so that she could tell them about this twisted plan and make them take a step back on their heart-changing crusades.

"Very well, my dear detective princess..." Suddenly, Ren's eyes adopted a spark of defiance and determination in them, with his lips curling into an expectant smirk. His index and thumb pressing a little more against his chin as he spoke. "Time shall decide who of us is correct and who isn't. It'll be quite an interesting game."

Akechi wasn't taken aback at all; instead, her eyes lightened up with an intense fire of determination and acceptance, as she allowed a gentle laugh to escape her mouth holding a hand a bit close to her mouth. "Oh, what a particular thing to see~ I know you have a huge amount of confidence in your actions, but this is a peculiar thing to see~ If I didn't know you enough I would dare say you know things that many people are not aware of~" 'Funny, considering how just like you, I know many things other people don't know of.' Thought to herself the brunette, as an amused smirk drew on her lips. "But I most certainly agree; time will decide who of us is right on this matter~" 

"Alright then, it seems we have ourselves a bet Goro-chan~!" A mischievous grin appeared on Ren as he chuckled amusedly. "I still don't know what you'll have to do if I win, but I will think of a suitable payment, so fear not dear detective."

"Ohoho, you must be REALLY confident if you are already thinking of a payment for my lost." The detective girl rolled her eyes, but she smiled at him nevertheless. After all, she knew that Ren would win this bet no matter what happened. "But very well, I accept your challenge Ren. Just do not ask for something you may regret on the future."

"Huh?" Ren seemed a little shocked by Akechi's words and his eyes started to adopt a look of concern. "Why would I regret it? What do you mean by that?"

The tension that appeared on Akechi's shoulders couldn't be described with any possible adjective. 'Oh fuck I slipped.' The detective didn't take into consideration that Ren wasn't aware of the truth behind the Black Mask, and she just spilled those words without thinking. This train of thought took her to recall Loki's words back at the Safe Room of Kobayakawa's Palace. **_Do you think Ren will ever be able to look at you after he learns the truth? He will hate you and wish he had never spoken to you._** And he was still right on that; for sure when Ren learned about the sins she had committed as the Black Mask, he would be disgusted with the mere thought of having her near him. She was truly scared of that happening... But her mind was settled. Ren could end up hating her and their friendship could tear down to pieces, he could spit on her as if she was nothing more than a piece of junk. Yet, all that mattered to Akechi was to finally make things right and for once do something for the sake of justice. The Phantom Thieves, unlike her, had a whole life ahead, things to fight and live for, places to vist. She would do everything to pull them away from this Metaverse crap and make them focus on their futures so that they don't end up as messed up as her. This was her resolve and her new motivation to stay strong.

"Hey... Goro-chan? Is there a problem? You seem worried about something." The concern in the raven's eyes grew rapidly, to the point where it seemed he would start bursting out a lot of questions to her.

"Ah!" The sound of Ren's voice caused her to snap her attention back, making her wave her hand from side to side. "Forget about it Ren, I was just lost in my thoughts! Sorry about that." The brunette offered him a sweet genuine smile, that somehow managed to make Ren relax.

"Alright, if you say so detective." The raven sighed before his lips adopted his now characteristic smirk. "Although you still have to fit of a suitable payment if I end up loosing. Even if I'm confident, that doesn't take out the fact that I'm aware who I'm competing with." Ren raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Well don't worry about that my friend, I will eventually find something good for you to do." Responded the brunette, wearing a playful smile. Afterwards, she took her phone out of her pocket and took a glance at it, checking on the time. "I'm sorry Ren, but we should part ways now. I need to head to the TV studio and record my interview, even if I wished I could escape it."

"No problem princess, I should also start heading home or Sojiro will start nagging at him. Oh, by the way" Ren took his phone out of his pocket and wore a smile on his face. "We should exchange numbers. Like that, we can text each other if we want to hang around again together."

"Of course!" They put their phones a bit closer to the other. With a few seconds of holding them close, they exchanged contact info, giving the other a satisfied nod.

"Feel free to text or call me anytime you need something. Even if you just feel like hearing the sound of my voice~" The raven grinned while winking at the detective, action that earned him an eye rolling and a smile. It seemed she was slowly getting used to this side of the raven's personality.

"You too Ren." The brunette put her phone back in her skirt pocket and started rubbing the back of her right arm, averting her gaze a little. "I... I'm not a girl of many capabilities, but if you ever need help with something, feel free to ask me for help. I will do whatever is within my reach to help you, even if it's not that much of a deal..."

"Don't say that, anything you can do to help is enough and knowing you, you'll end up helping quite a bunch." The raven gave Akechi a reassuring smile, which earned him a blush from said girl. A few instants later, her gaze lifted to the raven and her lips curled into a happy smile. "But I know you are a busy person, so I'll try to contact you only when you are free." Ren started walking away, having his body half-turned so that he could see Akechi while he waved her goodbye. "See you around! Good luck with your interview and I hope to hear from you soon!" With those words, the raven turned to the direction he was walking to.

The only thing Akechi did at that moment was wave back at him, wearing a sad look in her eyes when the raven turned away from her. "S-See you around... Ren..." She whispered to herself, staring at the boy before he got lost in the massive crowd. She was back to being alone... Until she felt her phone vibrate for a moment. Curious of who texted her, she pulled her phone out once more and checked on her messages. 

**_Ren Amamiya -_ **  
_I enjoyed spending time together, we totally have to do it again. Take care, Goro-chan._

For a moment, the brunette just stared at the message. Suddenly, Akechi's lips quivered and the hand she was holding the phone with started shaking. Her eyes started getting teary, ready to cry at any moment. Just a message like that managed to shake her whole world, making her a complete mess of emotions. The amount of happiness she felt with being treated so naturally while she was acting as her normal self was impossible to put into words. By the time her lips stopped quivering they were already curling up into a smile. The fire of determination inside of her burned with massive strength, causing her to gaze up to the sky with a big smile. Her confidence just received a massive boost. 'Let's do this shit!' Akechi could feel the power coming from Robin Hood and Loki, as if both were showing they were prepared to fight by her side.

And so, the detective walked through Shibuya, mixing up with the massive crowd. She had a mission and she would give everything in her power to become sucessful in her goal.

\------------------

"Ah, you're back." Those words were practically a routine thing in Ren's life. Every day when he got back to Leblanc, Sojiro would receive him with that phrase. Not that it was a bad thing, in fact it was nice to have someone greet him home like the old man did.

Speaking of Sojiro, he was doing stuff at the counter and talking with Futaba, when he heard his café's door open and saw the raven boy he had taken in during April return from his four-day course. The man stopped doing stuff at the counter to turn and look at Ren with a grin. "I take it you had a good time with your course."

"Of course he did!! He had been looking forward to it since July, so for sure it was worth the while, right Ren?" Asked the orange-haired girl known as Futaba Sakura, Sojiro's adoptive daughter. She had become a crucial member of the Phantom Thieves since the Medjed take down. Not only she was an amazingly skilled hacker, but she also played an incredible role as the navigator of the group. Thanks to her scanning, navigation and support skills, the group had grown quite a bunch.

Ren chuckled at Futaba's classic enthusiasm and energy before taking a sit next to her at the counter. "Yep, it's just as Futaba says. I really did miss the group though and I can't wait to see them tomorrow at school." The raven raised an eyebrow at Sojiro, wearing a big grin on his lips. "So, how was it missing your favourite part-timer? I take it things weren't hard to handle without me here."

"Who do you think you are, the queen of England?" Asked Sojiro attempting to sound bitter as he sighed loudly. But Ren and Futaba knew it was just his way to say 'Good to have you back kiddo' and they just giggled a little. "Everything was fine, nothing this old man couldn't handle. It's still nice to have you back though. As a matter of fact, how about you get up from your ass and wash the dishes?"

"Ouch, can't you see I'm super tired?" The raven chuckled before getting up and heading up to the sink. It was quite full. Ren didn't waste another second, and lifted his sleeves to then start washing up the dishes. "So Futaba, how were things with Mona? Everything cool?"

"Mona is doing fine, buuuuuut I may be treating him a bit hardly. In my defense I can't help but squeeze his cheeks, they are so soft!" The girl mimicked with her hands as if she was holding Mona's cheeks.

"Seriously, you torture that poor cat Futaba. You should just leave him be for a while, he needs time for himself y'know?" Spoke the old man with a little grin on his face, earning him a frustrated scoffing from Futaba.

Sojiro and Futaba kept talking to each other while Ren kept washing up the dishes. It was around 7:50 PM when he arrived at Leblanc, so he had forty minutes to just hang around before Akechi's interview aired. Once he was done with the dishes, Sojiro taught him some coffee tricks with Futaba observing and even learning a little from her father's explanations. With the quick coffee lesson finishing, the raven sat back down at the counter while checking on his messages. The Phantom Thieves group chat was full of things like pictures, videos and audios of his friends in Hawaii. Associated to these archives were some texts, explaining the way things got to that certain situation. When he went back to the main chat screen, he noticed that Akechi had answered to his text around an hour later than when he sent the message. It appeared she answered before she had to record the interview.

 ** _Goro Akechi -_**  
_I had a great time as well, can't wait do it again. See you around Ren, and have a pleasant evening._

The raven smiled at the text, before putting his phone on the counter. Both him and Futaba enjoyed themselves on two plates of Sojiro's amazing curry, chattering a bit about how the course had gone. A few minutes of chatter later, the raven turned his gaze towards the TV; the interview would start in a couple of seconds. And so, exactly at 8:30 PM like Akechi said, the interview was aired.

"C'mon you detective jerk... Open that mouth of yours so that we see you self-destruct!" Futaba murmured her words, yet Ren managed to perfectly hear them.

"And so, when everyone least expected it, the Phantom Thieves acted and took down Medjed. The public was really surprised, never expecting them to be able to stand up to Medjed!" The male reporter spoke with an exaggerated dramatic tone before turning to Akechi. "What are your thoughts on the matter Akechi-san? Did you ever think the Phantom Thieves could accomplish such a task as this?"

"My reaction to this was the same as everyone; I hadn't expect them to take down Medjed at all." Were all the words the detective spoke. She kept her composure and held her up TV celebrity mask, but it was somewhat obvious to Ren, who talked to her before, that she didn't want to be there to begin with.

"Oh? I see you're being quite quiet about the subject Akechi-san. Aren't you going to add anything to it? Perhaps you're being cautious?" The reporters words came out with a discreet yet perceivable tone of provoking. "I wouldn't be shocked if you were doing so; the backlash online that you got must have been quite a surprise as well." 'Now that was just uncalled-for.' thought the raven with a frown on his face. That report must've been a supporter of The Phantom Thieves for him to say something like that to Akechi; that, or he was just acting like that as an action to move the public, since most of the audience seemed to be against Akechi.

"Oh of course; it was something quite surprising and I'm still recovering from the shock of it." A soft polite laughter escaped the brunette's mouth, who internally was screaming in her annoyance towards the reporter.

"Speaking of the Phantom Thieves and their targets, the forum has been quite active lately, and the rankings show that the public wish for the Thieves to go after Okumura. What are your thoughts on this Akechi-san? Do you think that the Phantom Thieves will end up going after Okumura next?"

The brunette detective crossed her right leg over her left leg, crossing her arms and placing her chin between her left index and thumb. "Well, I'm not sure if they will. That depends on what the Thieves are trying to achieve with these changes of hearts. If their true goal is to gain popularity like I once hypothesized, then there is no doubt that they'll do whatever the fans tell them to. Or maybe, who knows? Perhaps with all the praise and fame they've been gaining lately, they'll start to think they can do as they please and end up taking... drastic actions." 

"Drastic actions you say? Ah, yes! You had said some time ago that you found some points that could connect the changes of heart with the recent mental shutdown incidents. So with this you're considering that the Phantom Thieves could be behind the mental shutdowns as well, Akechi-san?"

"As much as it pains me to admit it, it's not fully clear if the Thieves are actually behind those recent incidents. However, that doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to the fact that both changes of hearts and the mental shutdown incidents are both sudden and so far unexplainable occurrences. Whether the Phantom Thieves are indeed behind both of these occurrences and not just the changes of heart, only time with tell. Eventually, this group of righteous people will end up showing their true colors..." A little smile appeared on Akechi's face. "Nevertheless, there is one undeniable fact about this situation."

"Oh? And what is that, Akechi-san?" Asked the reporter, seemingly curious by Akechi's sudden change.

"No matter what the outcome may be, justice will prevail in the end." Spoke the brunette with a somewhat serious tone in her voice. And with that, the interview was finished.

"Pfffft yeah sure." Futaba seemed to be quite annoyed by Akechi's lasts words and took the final bite of her curry. "Justice?! Hmph, soon she'll find out what true justice is! Just you wait Akechi, you'll fall off that high horse soon enough."

It was obvious that Futaba didn't quite see the change in Akechi, but since Ren saw her true colors he was perfectly able to recognize the glimpse of Akechi's true personality. During those final lines, Ren was able to feel something in Akechi's words, as if a spark had just started up a big fire. He also noticed that Akechi avoided any other comments she could've done about their group, speaking only what was necessary to answer the reporter's questions. What could have possibly happened to Akechi? To that, the raven had no real answer, but he was sure something was up...

"Heyyyyy Earth to Ren! Are you in some kind of astral trip or something?" The sudden sound of Futaba's voice and the view of her hand waving in front of him snapped him back to the moment.

"Huh? No Futaba, I'm not on an astral trip." Said the raven, looking at Futaba with a deadpan look on his face.

"Well I'm sorry but you were spacing out like a pro! Were you even paying attention to the interview?! Ah well... It wasn't that big of a deal anyway, nothing really relevant." Futaba moved her head a little to see if Sojiro was far enough at the back, to then inch closer to Ren and whisper in his ear. "What really matters is that we'll show that dumb Akechi what true justice is! Right?!"

  
"Hell yeah we will." The raven patted Futaba's head with a big smile, which made the orange haired girl giggle amusedly. They had to show Akechi that the Phantom Thieves looked out for others in need and how they wanted to be the light of hope for the weak to grasp on. With that resolve in his mind, his lips adopted his classic Joker like smirk. Society would see that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts were there to bring justice for people.

  
\---------------

"Before that happens..."

"We will take this country!" 

**Author's Note:**

> IT IS COMPLETE! So, this story is finally over but worry not. I have an important exam I need to pass this thursday (Kill me.) But I'll be starting the sequel to this story as soon as I'm done with that exam! I hope you liked this story and thank you for your support! Feel free to comment your thoughts on it. English isn't my first language, so I apologize for the visual cancer I may give you with some of my typos jsjsjsjs ^^'
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and that you are having a great day/night!


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